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Friday, August 7, 2020

Looking Backward

We noted in past blog posts that the economic recovery shifted from end-of-the-beginning to stall and (maybe) back to end-of-the beginning. Today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly labor market survey which refers to conditions in mid-July, so a backward look. It is also a look which remains affected by methodological issues resulting from the ongoing coronavirus crisis. The release refers to the U.S. as a whole and does not include a state breakdown, which will come later.

Basically, the two surveys included - household (which produces the unemployment rate) and payroll - show the situation as somewhere between our stall and end-of-the-beginning statuses.

Unemployment dropped but remains very high. Employment rose but more slowly than before - likely a result of the spread of infection and varying degrees of lockdown or return to lockdown-type steps.

[Click on image to clarify and enlarge.]
Of interest in the coming week will be the revenue collection for California from the state controller's office for July. The due date for income taxes was postponed from April to July. Preliminary reports indicate that revenue may have been above projections made for the June budget which would take some pressure off the state budget. Note that income taxes due in April and then postponed refer to the pre-coronavirus calendar year 2019. We will see.

The latest labor market release is at:
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

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