And There Are No Jobs
For the first time since August 2003, nonfarm payrolls decreased on a month to month basis – down 4,000 from July to August. The numbers for June and July were also revised downward.
I put very little stock in government data. But if you do take this as a real data point it’s pretty serious. One of the bulls main contention is that the current credit crisis is a Wall Street issue and not an economic one. But there’s nothing more economic than jobs. If people don’t have jobs they can’t spend money and the economy grinds to a halt. A lot of bulls have been pointing to a strong employment picture and today’s report is a real blow to that argument.
As of right now (12:45pm EST), we’re looking at a 187 point (-1.40%) and 18.5 point (1.26%) sell off in the Dow and S&P respectively.