Guy Berger Profile picture
Jul 31 5 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Claims:

1/ Good news. The continuing claims scare of May/June faded further... continuing claims fell below my benchmark (which assumes a ~4% Y/Y increase).

They're likely to be (misleadingly) flattish for the remainder of the year, due to residual seasonality. Image
2/ Another way of seeing this: continuing claims were up about 4% Y/Y - comparable to before the scare.

That's still not *great*, reflecting a very mild ongoing deterioration. But that's not what got us worried two months ago. Image
3/ Initial claims continue to run not only below my benchmark, but below the last two years.

Layoffs appear to be coming down; we'll see if other data sources confirm this development in a few weeks. Image
4/ This is really something Image
5/ This is the nowcast for unemployment due to permanent layoff, which whiffed last month. Image

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More from @EconBerger

Jul 29
JOLTS: 1/ Hiring was a little on the soft side in June, but generally the main turnover indicators have been stable for some time. Cooling has been on pause since summer/fall 2024 and limited evidence that it has resumed. Image
2/ As stated earlier, hiring was on the soft side. A hiring rate of 3.3% is comparable to early 2012 levels, when the unemployment rate was a little over 8%. But there's a pretty good chance it's just noise around a stable, weak hiring trend. Image
3/ Quits are stable at 2.0% - around 2015-16 levels, when the unemployment rate was at just over 5%. People know job opportunities are limited, and are staying put as a result. Image
Read 5 tweets
Jul 24
Claims:

1/ Continuing claims a bit higher than I thought they would be, though still not that concerning.

We're probably going to be on a flattish trajectory in the published series for the remainder of the year due to residual seasonality. Image
2/ That flattish trajectory in the published series is an overly benign portrayal of what is actually happening in the underlying data, which is an ongoing slow creep upward. Image
3/ Initial claims continue to run below year-ago levels. We're still in the Hurricane Beryl base effect window so I'll want to wait a little longer before I declare that layoffs are coming down... Image
Read 5 tweets
Jul 2
1/ As with nonfarm payroll employment from the BLS, the breakeven monthly rate for ADP is much lower than it was a year ago.

Worth keeping in mind when seeing numbers like this…
2/ Without taking future revisions into account, we’ve had a similar trajectory to the unemployment rate in the first 5 months of this year with 124K/mo (vs 180K/mo a year earlier.)

Consider future revisions into account and we’re probably talking 154K vs 59K. Image
3/ I am in general mildly pessimistic about the labor market trajectory - I don’t intend to be a Pollyanna here.

But a lot of the slowing in employment growth is coming from the supply side, not the demand side.

Read more: open.substack.com/pub/macromostl…
Read 4 tweets
Jun 6
BLS charts:

1/ An increase of 139K in May, comparable to gains in the last two months (which were revised down).

My speculative hypothesis based on QCEW data through December 2024: after the eventual benchmark revision, these numbers will be closer to 70K/month. Image
2/ The unemployment rate is slowly creeping up, right along the track the Fed anticipated in March.

Was 4.244%, just shy of an unfavorable rounding. Image
3/ The employment population ratio was at 80.5% in May, and is zig-zagging a little below its cyclical peak. Image
Read 10 tweets
Jun 5
Business Trends & Outlook Survey from the Census Bureau:

1/ Employers are becoming slightly less pessimistic, relative to a year earlier, about future headcount (probably reflecting less-high tariffs).

We haven't seen actual behavior (modestly contractionary) change much since Image
2/ The improvement in headcount plans (relative to a year ago) is coming from fewer firms planning to cut headcount, and more firms planning to expand it.

Again, they are more pessimistic than 5-6 months ago - but less pessimistic than 1-2 months ago. Image
3/ A slightly smaller share of employers are currently/recently expanding headcount, relative to a year ago. The share of employers cutting headcount is unchanged relative to a year ago. Image
Read 8 tweets
Jun 4
Quick notes on the Q4 QCEW release this morning:

1/ TL;DR: We are very likely going to get large negative downward revisions to the growth of non-farm employment in the year from March 2024 to March 2025. Image
2/ To recap: the QCEW is the source data for the annual benchmark revision to nonfarm payroll employment.

The next benchmark date is March 2025. We'll get a preliminary estimate in late summer. We'll get the final benchmark revision in early February 2026.
3/ As of this morning, we have 3 quarters of the QCEW data that will constitute the benchmark source data.

QCEW data are noisy. They're also, themselves, subject to revisions (more later). So this is speculative based on 3 rather than the full 4 quarters. Nevertheless...
Read 8 tweets

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