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Strong Job Numbers Suggest Soft Landing, Economic Rebound

Year-end is a tricky time to get reliable, seasonally adjusted employment data, what with people on vacation, suspending searches, changing jobs, skipping town, and generally bewildering the Labor Department.  Still, today's new jobless report was nonetheless surprising cheery.  New claims filed fell by 20,000 to 304,000 (a 25% larger drop than was expected).

Tuesday's new Fed statement suggested that inflation continued to be the bigger worry than recession (good news, on balance, if you're a fan of economic growth) and today's jobless data suggests that employers likewise expect the recent economic slowdown will not keep growth away in 2007.

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Strong Job Numbers Suggest Soft Landing, Economic Rebound

Year-end is a tricky time to get reliable, seasonally adjusted employment data, what with people on vacation, suspending searches, changing jobs, skipping town, and generally bewildering the Labor Department.  Still, today's new jobless report was nonetheless surprising cheery.  New claims filed fell by 20,000 to 304,000 (a 25% larger drop than was expected).

Tuesday's new Fed statement suggested that inflation continued to be the bigger worry than recession (good news, on balance, if you're a fan of economic growth) and today's jobless data suggests that employers likewise expect the recent economic slowdown will not keep growth away in 2007.