Initial jobless claims for the week ending March 30 increased by 9,000…Jobless claims increased to 221,000 (Briefing.com consensus 214,000).What does it mean – Jobless claims are still hinting that we are going to see a soft landing, yet long tern trends continue to go the wrong way. The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending March 16 was 2,038,116, an increase of 1,035 from the previous week. In the same week a year ago, there were 1,905,338 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs. That is about a 7% increase from a year ago.U.S. Employers add 303,000 new employees… March was on fire. The employment report was much better than expected.What does it mean – New jobs point to solid growth. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 303,000, the unemployment rate dipped to 3.8%. We did see another revision to the downside for February. The private sector payrolls revised down by 16,000 jobs to 207,000 from 223,000 in February.Part-time employment has surged…More and more people seeking full-time work are ending up with part-time jobs.What does it mean – Small business owners in CA are the first to tell you that regulations and the rising cost of a mandated minimum wage of $20 per hour is forcing the backbone of the work force to convert to more part-time employment. I guess the unions have it wrong – flipping burgers is not a career. But when you unionize the fast-food industry and add the added expense of dealing with unions along with continued wage pressure by unions all contribute to higher costs and inflation. Keep reading. More on this to come.
