eldridge fertilizer: Lack of monthly U.S. jobs report leaves economic void

WASHINGTON ? The latest victims of the government?s partial shutdown: policy wonks, politicians and TV talking heads who are losing their monthly opportunity to dissect the jobs report issued by the Bureau of Labor?Statistics.

The ritual unfolds every month: The jobs report comes out, and Wall Street panics or exults. Political advocates spin. And economic analysts crowd cable TV to offer us their?insights.

It happens the first Friday of the month at 8:30 a.m. Eastern?time.

Except?today.

The government?s partial shutdown means the September jobs report is being postponed. The workers who produce it??

You have viewed 20 free articles or blogs allowed within a 30-day period. FREE registration is now required for uninterrupted access.

Registration Required

log in to your Spokesman.com account for unlimited viewing and commenting access.
Don't have a Spokesman.com account? Create a Spokesman.com profile and register for FREE access.
S-R Media, The Spokesman-Review and Spokesman.com are happy to assist you. Contact Customer Service by email or call 800-338-8801

The ritual unfolds every month: The jobs report comes out, and Wall Street panics or exults. Political advocates spin. And economic analysts crowd cable TV to offer us their?insights.

It happens the first Friday of the month at 8:30 a.m. Eastern?time.

Except?today.

The government?s partial shutdown means the September jobs report is being postponed. The workers who produce it aren?t deemed ?essential,? which is why they?re among the 800,000 federal employees being?furloughed.

They aren?t doctors treating wounded soldiers at military hospitals or air traffic controllers ensuring that planes take off and land?safely.

They?re?statisticians.

Yet for a subculture of Americans whose professional lives are tied to the monthly jobs report, its absence may be?disorienting.

?Economists and journalists will have some withdrawal pains,? suggests Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody?s Analytics and a fixture on cable-TV gabfests after the jobs reports are?released.

Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial and another regular television presence on the morning of the jobs reports, jokes that she won?t have to get up so early today. Yet she?ll feel the?loss.

The jobs report is a ?flashlight into the dense forest of global economic information,? Swonk said. ?We?ve turned the flashlight?off.?

Wall Street traders whose computers are normally primed to spring into action milliseconds after the report is issued will have to manage without?it.

?Most investors I talk to are taking a wait-and-see attitude,? said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank. ?I don?t think anybody is crying in their?beer.?

Wall Street bases its buy-and-sell decisions on countless data ? from economic growth in the United States and abroad to corporate profits, manufacturing output and home sales. But the jobs report tends to occupy center stage. Job growth drives consumer spending, which fuels most of the U.S.?economy.

?The economic data everybody looks at all month long leads up to a day like (today),? said Jonathan D. Corpina, senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners. ?Without having that core ingredient to your economic calendar, the dish really isn?t going to be?done.?

So can stock analysts just take today?off?

Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pa., mused, half-seriously, that he might as well head to his weekend place on the Jersey?shore.

?Employment Fridays are always an incredibly busy time for me,? Naroff said. ?This one is going to be strangely?quiet.?

What will the cable financial news outlets, from CNBC to Bloomberg to Fox Business Network, do this morning with no jobs?report?

CNBC issued a statement saying it?s ?still planning a big show on Friday? focused on the uncertainty from the shutdown and the ?incomplete picture on where the jobs market currently?stands.?

Today?s report was expected to show that the economy added 180,000 jobs in September, slightly more than the modest 169,000 in August. The unemployment rate was expected to remain at a still-high 7.3?percent.

Without the jobs data, it isn?t only Wall Street that will have to act without its usual information. The Federal Reserve will almost surely put off any move to slow its bond purchases when it meets later this month. The purchases have been designed to keep long-term borrowing rates?low.

A resolution of the shutdown would allow the government to eventually release the September jobs report. But Naroff is already worried about the October jobs report, set for release in early November. A prolonged shutdown would bar the government from doing the necessary surveys on hiring and?employment.

?Do they do it a week late?? Naroff said. ?Do they just not do it? I don?t?know.?

Zandi says he?ll grow alarmed only if a prolonged shutdown shuts off the flow of economic data for weeks. No one would know precisely how the economy is reacting to Washington?s political?standoff.

?It?s like flying a plane with few instruments,? Zandi says. ?You?re able to do it for a while. But if you hit a storm, there?s a good chance you?ll?crash.?

Still, important as the jobs report is, some find its coverage on cable TV to be overkill. Barry Ritholtz, chief investment officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management, calls it ?the single most overanalyzed, overwrought, overemphasized data point in?finance.?

Ritholtz notes that each month?s job figure is later revised twice, sometimes?sharply.

?It?s only a function of financial television and radio that have time to?fill.?

Regardless, Zandi plans to be exactly where he is on every other first Friday of the month: speaking on a panel of experts on?CNBC.

?There?s always something to talk about,? he?said.

Source: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/oct/04/lack-of-monthly-us-jobs-report-leaves-economic/

glee glee masters live frozen four Rehtaeh Parsons National Sibling Day march madness