Free Republic

The U.S. labor force is expected to expand only slowly over the coming decade as the country ages and more Americans give up on holding a job, a potential drag on broader economic growth. The economy is expected to generate 9.8 million new jobs, a 6.5% increase, from 2014 to 2024, the Labor Department said in new projections released Tuesday. While steady, that is a historically slow pace. By comparison, 10-year job creation averaged almost 14% during the 2001-07 expansion and close to 17% during the 1990s. The slowdown highlights declining participation as baby boomers retire and younger Americans opt...

With the March Payroll number printing at a miserable 88K compared to ADP's 158K print, it was only a matter of time before Mark Zandi, still furious from getting the news he won't be the next GSE Tzar, revised the last month's data to 131K as he just did. Concurrently he also announced that the just released April ADP was a huge miss to expectations of 150K, printing at just 119K, or a 31K miss. This was the 5th month in a row of declines excluding the small bounce in February data. It also means that the combined miss to...