Last week’s employment report was puzzling. The Bureau of Labor Statistics carries out two separate surveys, one of employers and another of households; we normally expect the two to paint a similar picture. This time, not so much.
The employer survey was, to use the technical term, meh — 210,000 jobs added, a respectable number but not what many had hoped for. The household survey, however, was terrific; in particular, the employment rate among prime-age adults, a key measure of labor market health, is beginning to approach prepandemic levels.
Well, we shouldn’t make too much of the apparent inconsistencies in the report. Noisy data happens, and overall the economic picture looks pretty good — indeed, in many ways this looks like the best economic recovery in many decades.
Yet consumers appear to be feeling very downbeat — or at least that’s what they tell surveys like the famous Michigan Survey of Consumers. And this perception of a bad economy is clearly weighing on President Biden’s approval rating. Which raises the question: Are consumers right? Is this a bad economy despite data showing it as very good? And if it really isn’t a bad economy, why does the public say it is?
Just to be clear, I genuinely want to know the answer to these questions. I don’t think it’s a crude case of “people are being lied to by the corporate media,” although if you ask me, it’s silly when people in the media get all huffy over any suggestion that how they report on the economy has an...
Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe LLP reminds Five9, Inc. (NASDAQ: FIVN) investors that the firm is investigating potential wrongdoing at the company following a 26% stock drop and court ruling that ...
