Are Jobs on the Recovery Path?
Well, it seems like there is a lot of mixed message media going on lately as far as the economic recovery goes. However, I’d like to think that this one very important indicator of the overall economy, and the precursor to higher consumer spending and confidence – the job market improvement – is true. Economists are speculating that although the April numbers were still pretty devastating, and may well last the next few months as well as companies shed jobs at record paces due to shallow profits, may be on their way back up soon.
They are saying that because consumer confidence and spending appears to be up as of late, this may well indicate that more companies will soon need more employees to meet consumer demand. This means that some companies may even end up rehiring those that they laid off, to prevent having to hired totally unskilled workers, which is of course much more expensive in the long run. There are also other indicators that point toward a possible hiring increase, but the months ahead will show what the true story is.
Ben Bernanke gave his disposition on the economy lately on Capitol Hill, and he speculated that we will begin the glimpses of a recovery in late 2009, but that we still have quite a road ahead of us now. As far as the time I’m writing this, which is the beginning of May, I can tell you that the stock market is already rebounding, with many of the last month’s losses already being covered and then some, so that is another good sign. However, it’s important to note that the stock market is not a leading indicator of the actual state of the economy, but rather, usually leads economic boom times by several months.
So if that stands true this time, we still have quite a lot of time on our hands before the real, serious recovery begins and we can start sighing a breath of relief since jobs will likely be going way up and we will be enjoying our way of life again. It’ll be nice when every headline doesn’t read with words like “foreclosure”, “unemployment”, “stocks tank for fifth month in a row”, and the like, won’t it? Some day, and some day soon, these headlines will be a thing of the past.
