Afternoon Note

Households Sunnier Than Establishment
By Charles Payne, CEO & Principal Analyst
4/7/2017 1:19 PM

The market initially recoiled at the disappointing jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but disappointment faded as certain elements of the report gained focused.  A couple of positive nuggets came from the so-called Household Survey, which does its own job creation tally and calculates the unemployment rate.

• +472,000 Employed
• 4.5% Unemployment Rate (was 4.7% in February and 5.0% March 2016)

Then there’s the U-6 number, which for many is the real unemployment rate (total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force), which continues to decline rapidly to 8.9% for March, from 9.4% in January, and 9.8% a year ago. 

The recent peak was 17.10% in March 2010.

Still combing through the jobs report for additional highlights, but I will echo my thoughts from this morning that this looks like an anomaly that doesn’t match a wide swath of data (soft and hard).

I’m feeling confident about the market in general as we move onto earnings, which are expected to be huge, picking up back to back gains in corporate bottom lines.

Have a great weekend.

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