The unemployment numbers look to be grim tomorrow.
If the early job market indicators are at all sending out accurate signals, tomorrow’s employment report will be bad. The main manufacturing orders and production indexes are at their lowest levels in sixty years, manufacturing exports are down, Chrysler has shuttered all its manufacturing facilities until January 19, and manufacturers are slashing payrolls. The service sector is suffering too. Little wonder economist Edward Yardeni, head of his own forecasting firm, says “the labor market indicators are likely to be awful for both December and January.”
Watch closely to see how government, education and health care do on the job front. Those are the only sectors of the economy that have held up relatively well.
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