Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Earlier:
- Latest: Wall Street drops as jobs growth stumbles
- US jobs creation much weaker than forecast, just 235k
- August slowdown after over 1m new hires in July
- Delta variant hits leisure and hospitality hiring
Earlier:
- UK service sector growth hits six-month low amid shortages
- Wages jump in battle for workers
- Eurozone retail sales drop unexpectedly
- Worker shortage will lead to UK food price rises, industry warns
- China’s service sector shrank last month
Investment manager Steven Rattner (the former head of president Obama’s Auto Task Force) is concerned that America’s labor force participation rate remains weak.
He fears that many Americans have dropped out of the jobs market for good:
Unfortunate detail in jobs report: Leisure & hospitality, which had averaged +350K jobs/month for the last 6 months, saw NO gains in August. Overall level remains 1.7M jobs below Feb 2020. pic.twitter.com/10AjdMg2hA
More importantly, however, the labor force participation rate was also unchanged—and remains severely depressed. At this point, we have to consider the likelihood that many Americans (retired, disillusioned, etc.) have stopped working permanently. pic.twitter.com/JypqrXlnWs
Biggest hint August payrolls were affected by delta: Leisure & Hospitality jobs flat, restaurant/bar jobs fall, but hours worked in L&H fall. Less labor supply meets lower consumer demand. pic.twitter.com/VXnAhGyd8Z