It was just a month ago when every headline you could find would be about the employment situation. Experts everywhere were touting how the national unemployment figures would define the election. Today a month later, the unemployment figures are out and other than the main headline released this morning, you didn’t hear much about this report all week. Did we stop caring about the unemployed now that the election is over?
In
case you were wondering the unemployment rate for November dropped .2% down to
7.7% which is the lowest we have seen since December 2008. The economy added a much greater than
expected146,000 jobs in the month of November.
The unemployment rate was predicted by most experts to increase due to
the devastation by Hurricane Sandy.
Typically
within the employment report there has been factors that have indicated that
the employment picture is not as rosy as the headline number indicates. However it seems in this report that most of
the sub headlines about hiring and individual employment sector growth support
the improved employment data which means that jobs picture continues to improve
and move in the right direction.
Outside
of the employment figures, this week was absent of any major economic reports
that would move the markets. The stock
market has been trading in a relatively narrow margin and it appears that this
will likely be the trend until one way or the other something happens or
doesn’t happen with the fiscal cliff. Quick
Question…Are you as sick of hearing about the fiscal cliff as I am?
About
3 years ago I wrote in a newsletter about how consumers had become numb to
hearing about the recession and that the markets were not even reacting much to
the day to day discussions about it the way they had in the earlier days of the
recessions.
Investors
and consumers are just sitting and waiting to see what is going to happen with
the fiscal cliff and have become numb to the daily reports and commentary
coming from every news outlet every single day.
We have accepted the fact that our elected officials are incapable of
doing their jobs and we have passed through the anger phase that if any of us
behaved the way members of Congress do, we would be fired from our jobs. However our wonderful elected individuals
(you know I want to use another word rather than “wonderful” right?) are
guaranteed a 4 year job no matter how incompetent they are.
Mortgage
rates continue to hover around record low territory. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported
that refinance applications jumped 6% where as purchase applications have
remained virtually unchanged.
JJ Mack
916-517-1800
jj.mack@apmortgage.com
www.apmcroseville.com
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