May Jobs Report Shockingly Bad
This article was submitted by JD Bauman, SchiffGold Precious Metals Specialist. Any views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.
Last Friday, the BLS released its jobs report for the month of May.
It was shockingly bad.
In light of the strike on Verizon, a relatively weak report of 170,000 jobs was expected; however, the report delivered far below expectations with just 38,000 jobs created. The new data, detailing the worst jobs numbers in nearly six years, is also accompanied with downward revisions of earlier numbers. The BLS revisions of employment figures for March and April puts the economy with 59,000 less jobs than previously reported.
The labor force participation rate also decreased as 660,000 more workers left the labor force. The current participation rate of 62.6% is nearly the lowest the US has seen in the last four decades.
Amazingly, following this dismal report the official government unemployment rate went down to 4.7%, the lowest since the Great Recession of 2008. A smaller workforce, of course, means a lower unemployment rate. It just goes to show how unhelpful these statistics are in actually gauging the true health of an economy—and how deliberately deceptive the government and media are for using them.
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The weak jobs report also sheds light upon macroeconomic projections, indicating serious weakness in economic growth and a high likelihood that the Fed will not raise rates this summer, despite its previously hawkish remarks in the April minutes announcement.
“This was quite shocking – it’s way under expectations,” said Christopher Sullivan, who oversees $2.3 billion as chief investment officer at United Nations Federal Credit Union in NY. The Fed “will postpone a nearby rate hike for sure — maybe they’ll be forced to look beyond the summer.”
In reaction the jobs report, Bloomberg reports a fall in the dollar and stock prices, accompanied by a rise in both bond and gold prices. Following the release of Friday’s jobs report, the gold spot price rose $33.10 and closed at $1243.50 an ounce for the weekend. With new evidence of a faltering economy, investors are continuing to reallocate their portfolios into safer assets like gold.
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