I’ll share a well kept secret. The aggregate-hours worked index for all of Q2 slowed to a mere 0.6% SAAR from 1.8% in Q1. This is the weakest quarter since…Q4 of 2009!
Just to reiterate. The term ‘head fake’ was coined precisely for the sort of employment report we received today. =You’ll soon be scurrying to buy those bonds you sold today.==
Half the payroll gain came from the ‘Birth-Death’ BLS guesstimate; and prime-adult male employment actually sagged 97k in June, collapsing 338k over the past
three months, which hasn’t happened since September 2009. Lift open the shiny hood and check out the sputtering engine.