The Bureau of Labor Statistics published the official Jobs Report today wherein the unemployment rate dropped to 4.9%. This is a curious number because only 151,000 new jobs were created last month. This increase is 30,000 less than the market expected and 124,000 less than last month’s new jobs rate. The Labor Force Participation Rate stayed at 62.7% and the U6 (measuring unemployed and underemployed civilians) percentage remained at 9.9%.
Those alleged 95.1% of the population that are employed saw an average 0.5% increase in pay last month which raises the year-over-year income inflation factor to 2.5%.
So far this winter morning, both stocks and bonds are marginally lower while still dissecting the BLS data. Have a great weekend!
