Just last month we were in a supposed labor shortage and now the jobs report is strong?
Astonishingly strong US jobs report sends stocks wavering
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Re: Astonishingly strong US jobs report sends stocks wavering
#32To me the headline says it all. Those workers, being in demand, asking for higher wages. What about our profits! We need a level of desperation in our work force, at least that caused by 4% unemployment, if we can expect to maintain the wealth gap that has been built up over the last years! (If it's not clear from the above, personally I am in favor of low unemployment and higher income equality.)
Your take is not off base.
If the economy hasnt slowed because of the hike in rates, that means inflation could easily spike again (as it did in the 70’s).
That means more hikes, potentially pushing future profits down.
The stock market isnt priced for what happening today, its priced for what the market thinks will happen.
Re: Astonishingly strong US jobs report sends stocks wavering
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
People employed can afford to buy stuff though, which also increases profit. The simpler reason is that it means that people believe Fed will read this as a license to not have to slow down rate increases, which will hurt stocks.
> The simpler reason is that it means that people believe Fed will read this as a license to not have to slow down rate increases But there's a direct relation, because the Fed has been very explicit that they're worried about employment and wage growth, and they're raising interest rates in order to depress those. The Fed operates according to the interests of the wealthy.
Do you think that inflation doesn't affect the poor? Or do you think the Fed has some tool which can reduce inflation without reducing wages, which they are choosing not to use? Or some third option?
Re: Astonishingly strong US jobs report sends stocks wavering
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The simpler reason is that it means that people believe Fed will read this as a license to not have to slow down rate increases But there's a direct relation, because the Fed has been very explicit that they're worried about employment and wage growth, and they're raising interest rates in order to depress those. The Fed operates according to the interests of the wealthy.
Good luck to them. 10K boomers retire a day, there are less workers than jobs, and no benchmark rate will change that. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34601350
> no benchmark rate will change that
It's definitely a crude measure. I think it acts as more of a signal to corporations that they should instigate mass layoffs.
You don't want to be the only company doing layoffs and then just have your competitors gobble up your talent and eat your lunch. So the Fed signals the safe time for everyone to do layoffs simultaneously. It's implicit coordination.
Re: Astonishingly strong US jobs report sends stocks wavering
#35The wealthiest 10% of Americans own 90% of these stocks. Most of you reading this are in the top 10%. Stock prices are a game among the wealthy who haven’t demanded that workers should be paid more to lower the absurdly high corporate profits.
Context, for those that were interested like I was. According to Investopedia, based on SSI data.
Top .1% is $3,212,486/year
1% is 823,763
5% is 342,987
10% is 173,176
I am waaaaay under that. Education is a joke.
Re: Astonishingly strong US jobs report sends stocks wavering
#36So tired of hearing how America is a free market. Supply / demand doesn’t matter here. We’re all owned by the banks, and ultimately the Fed and government pick the winners and losers.
Re: Astonishingly strong US jobs report sends stocks wavering
#37SPY and VTI are down like 0.65% right now and haven't even given up yesterday's gains. Plus a bunch of non-Meta tech companies missed on earnings yesterday. Come on.
Re: Astonishingly strong US jobs report sends stocks wavering
#38Considering that most of the growth was in leisure/hospitality, I interpret this move as the official "end" of the lockdown era. We have achieved full reopening/replacement of the bars, restaurants, and hotels that shut down during COVID, who proceeded to hire back all their low wage service workers. This explains the explosion in job growth with a stagnant avg hourly earnings rate - the new jobs are mostly low wage…
Anecdotally, there has been a striking increase in the amount of new service workers in training at restaurants and coffee shops in Portland. There was a very acute sense of labor shortage for the last few years, and that has gone.
I’m hoping that we might see coffee shops (other than Dutch Bros) open past 3 PM someday. Enough operators to keep the buses, trains, ambulances, and 911 call center working are probably higher priority though; those orgs have started reporting better hiring results recently as well.
Re: Astonishingly strong US jobs report sends stocks wavering
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
You should have read the article. The fear is that we are going to see yet another round of interest rate hikes to slow down inflation. Unemployment (according to the article) is also closer to 3% than 4 at the moment.
You seem to be saying essentially the same thing. The fed has been pretty clear that it sees wage growth as a serious inflation problem (because it's sticky) and they're intentionally raising rates to force cuts to wages and employment. Personally - I'm a little mixed, since I believe rates were far too low and have created a very strange economy where you have companies that never actually make money become househol…
The Fed did raise rates during the good years before this. And that was with a certain president threatening to fire the Fed chair for raising rates.
Re: Astonishingly strong US jobs report sends stocks wavering
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
People employed can afford to buy stuff though, which also increases profit. The simpler reason is that it means that people believe Fed will read this as a license to not have to slow down rate increases, which will hurt stocks.
> The simpler reason is that it means that people believe Fed will read this as a license to not have to slow down rate increases But there's a direct relation, because the Fed has been very explicit that they're worried about employment and wage growth, and they're raising interest rates in order to depress those. The Fed operates according to the interests of the wealthy.
If you have a way of reducing inflation without hitting wages or jobs, please share that with world.