America’s Job Market

There has not been so much good news for America’s labor  market recently. Interestingly, while there seemed to be an increase in wages and hours spent in the office, unfortunately this did not quite mirror productivity and output. In fact, at the end of the third quarter, figures showed that productivity dropped (SAAR) by 5.2%, making it the largest drop since Q21960 (which recorded a drop of 6.1%).

Despite these pessimistic and potentially troubling numbers, according to Action Economics’ Chief Economist Mike Englund, we should be seeing a “solid gain” for 2021 end of year of 1.7 percent.

According to recent Federal Reserve data however, a drop in US consumer credit from $27.8bn September to $16.9bn in October was recorded.  This was somewhat of a blow to economists who were anticipating a gain of $25bn.