Posted on 03/04/2016 3:54:38 AM PST by expat_panama
The Institute for Supply Management’s Non-Manufacturing Index fell for the fourth straight month to a two-year low in February, signaling slower growth and a slight decline in jobs.
The service-sector gauge dipped just 0.1 point to 53.4, the lowest since February 2014 but...
Meanwhile, factory orders rose 1.6% in January...
Manufacturers such as General Electric (GE) and United Technologies (UTX) have suffered from a strong dollar and weak overseas demand.
A struggling energy sector weighed on staff reductions last month, as Challenger reported 61,599 layoffs, down 18% from January’s number. Energy industry layoffs were 25,051, up 24.6% from the previous month. Halliburton (HAL) announced new job cut plans last week. It has shed or will shed 22,000 employees worldwide since the price of crude oil began its collapse.
CIARAN MCEVOY
3/02/2016
Private employers added a net 213,800 jobs to their payrolls in February, up from 193,400 in January, ADP reported. The services sector accounted for virtually all of the gains, while manufacturing employment fell.
Economists expected private payrolls to rise 185,000 last month.
The services sector added 208,500 jobs, up 20% from January’s downwardly revised 174,400 jobs added...
...a “very tough” quarter for investment banking.
Manufacturing, battered by a strong dollar, weak global economic growth and an enervated energy sector, lost 8,900 jobs last month, the second-largest drop in five years. Halliburton (HAL) is among the companies who have announced fresh layoffs in recent days. Manufacturing employment rose 0.1% vs. a year earlier, the smallest gain since late 2010.
But the overall goods sector increased jobs...
ADP’s report comes ahead of the Labor Department’s employment report on Friday. Economists expect 190,000 non-farm payrolls were added in February. They see the unemployment rate holding at 4.9%.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
What --mfg. up or down? The point is not double talk from the pundits, it's the fact that our econ's in a transition and what's true one day isn't true the next. 
<---these are yesterday's numbers but today we got these [click pics to enlarge]--->
My take is that saying the econ is all bad is as mindless as saying it's all good. In real life we have to survive and more often than not we can prosper.
The Bush-Obama Depression rolls on...
You’re right; we’ll know when the employment situation has improved when real wages rise - and I don’t see that happening any time soon. The rosy picture painted by our overlords is such an obvious hoax, part of the false Obama legacy.
He himself knew it was BS when years ago “jobs created” was amended to “jobs saved” - which couldn’t be quantified. His other false accomplishments will also have no performance metrics: saving the environment, improving race relations, blah blah blah...
Stocks are picking up (related thread: Smith & Wesson Lifts Outlook, Production Plans Amid Demand Surge) as yesterday's index continued our 3-day rally w/ heavier trade ---and we begin today w/ all this:
8:30 AM Nonfarm Payrolls
8:30 AM Nonfarm Private Payrolls
8:30 AM Unemployment Rate
8:30 AM Hourly Earnings
8:30 AM Average Workweek
8:30 AM Trade Balance
Something for everyone as gold & silver SOAR (now at $1,272.60 & $15.52!!!). Futures see them continue +1.57% with stock indexes barely +00.04%. My reading list:
The Myth of Price Instability In Gold Standard Era - Nathan Lewis, Forbes
Sorry Mr. Trump, the Chinese Aren't Crushing Us - George Reisman, RCM
Why Job Numbers Will Exceed Expectations - John Crudele, New York Post
Climate Forecasts Are Like Keynesian Econ Models - Phillip Magness, FEE
Beware Econ. 'Experts': They're Usually Wrong - Allister Heath, Telegraph
Paul Krugman Needs Energy Reality Check - Robert Bryce, National Review
BUMP! BUMP! Transfer some electronic digits to an EBT card and presto…a robust economy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE-z38pXUAo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o64Fz-KW1Dk
My EBT, my EBT…I just swipe my EBT.
Voodoo economics dovetails 4.9% unemployment.
--from the BLS' (PDF) report:
Seems pretty good. You see something here that I'm missing?
Everything “looks” GRRRRRRRREAT!
lol —and we got the numbers to prove it too!!
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