Graphic courtesy of CNN.com
Job gains at slower pace in August
Employment reports for the last month, released today, were somewhat less than stellar. A total of 142,000 new jobs were added to U.S. payrolls in August, which is below the average of roughly 207,000 new jobs per month for the past year. Still moving in the right direction, but not robust enough to keep up with population growth - or to convince the Fed to raise rates yet.
The tug and pull managed to push stocks higher on Friday, however, as stock brokers interpreted the weak jobs report to mean that interest rates will continue dwelling at historic low ranges. Lower interest rates typically foster more economic growth, in terms of stimulating new business and activity in the mortgage industry.
Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen has expressed concerns that although unemployment rates have been slowly dropping or remaining steady - currently at 6.1 percent - the truth is that many people have simply stopped looking for jobs. Another problem is that wage growth is still failing to keep up with the rising costs of housing and other goods. There may be more jobs in the market, but a key issue remains a lack of well-paying jobs, or upward mobility within companies.
As for economic benchmarks the Federal Reserve seeks before big changes are made, check out this dashboard of current market conditions, recession low points and future goals. A longer term analysis of market data helps put into perspective how far we've come, but also how far is left to go before the economy is on truly stable ground.
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