If NFP Employment Growth Had Grown in 2017 (and January 2018) Like It Did in 2016

we’d have had over 340,000 more jobs in December. And over 380,000 more jobs in January


Figure 1: Nonfarm payroll employment (blue), and 2016 linear deterministic exponential trend set to match 2017M01 value (red), in 000’s, seasonally adjusted, on log scale. Orange shading denotes 2017 data. Source: BLS December 2017 January 2018 release, author’s calculations. (updated 2/2)

Continue reading

Median Real Weekly Earnings for Workers back to 2016Q4 Levels


Figure 1: Employed full time: Median usual weekly real earnings for Wage and salary workers, 16 years and over, 1982-84 CPI Adjusted Dollars, seasonally adjusted (blue), and Employed full time: Median usual weekly nominal earnings (second quartile)f or Wage and salary workers, High School graduates, no college, 25 years and over, seasonally adjusted, deflated by CPI, not seasonally adjusted (red). NBER defined recession dates shaded gray. Orange shading denotes Trump administration. Source: BLS via FRED, and author’s calculations. (updated 8:30PM Pacific)

California in Recession? (Part II)

The release of labor market indicators suggests not, contra some recent commentary.


Figure 1: California civilian employment over age 16 from household survey (black), nonfarm payroll employment (dark blue), private nonfarm payroll employment (pink) from establishment survey, all in thousands, seasonally adjusted, on log scale. NBER defined recession dates shaded gray. Source: BLS and NBER.
Continue reading