Initial jobless claims fell again last week, touching a new four-year low and signaling that the labor market will continue growing in the foreseeable future. For the week through March 31, new filings for unemployment benefits dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 357,000.
Daily Archives: April 5, 2012
Will Job Growth Suffice?
Private-sector payrolls rose by 209,000 last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to yesterday’s ADP Employment Report. That’s pretty good, but is it good enough? The question resonates because while job growth has clearly perked up recently, at least compared with the modest pace for last year’s seven months through November, the faster rate of jobs creation hasn’t curtailed the slow deterioration in the year-over-year change in disposable personal income, at least not so far. Maybe that critical bit of progress is coming; if so, good news on this front is contingent on keeping payrolls rising at a healthy clip. Unfortunately, ADP’s estimate of March payrolls was a slight downshift from February. Granted, the change was slight—a net gain of 209,000 vs. 230,000 in February. That didn’t stop analysts from dispensing upbeat comments.