We’ve been trying to make heads or tails of this economy. Passenger screenings at TSA are way up over last year. Does this look like a bad economy?
Well what about commodities?
Copper remains elevated although it has corrected recently.
Brent crude is down from recent highs but will OPEC’s recent cut work to bring the price back up? What about summer demand?
Gasoline prices are down from recent highs which means more money in people’s pocket book.
And lastly, lumber seems to have had a major slowdown.
What about JOLTS?
The BLS released the JOLTS report yesterday so what do we make of it?
The number of job openings changed little at 8.1 million on the last business day of April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the month, both the number of hires and total separations were little changed at 5.6 million and 5.4 million, respectively. Within separations, quits
(3.5 million) and layoffs and discharges (1.5 million) changed little. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector, by industry, and by establishment size class.
Job Openings
On the last business day of April, the number of job openings changed little at 8.1 million; this measure was down by 1.8 million over the year. The rate was little changed at 4.8 percent in April. Job openings decreased in health care and social assistance (-204,000) and in state and local government education (-59,000) but increased in private educational services (+50,000). (See table 1.)
Well I hope this post helped answer the question but if you’re still not sure, stay tuned, stay profitable and stay solvent…