By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator
Dallas, TX – It's Thursday - the markets have already closed for the holiday weekend so "It's Only Money," a review of the big and not-so-big stories of the week. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Midday.
My gosh, no one expected June unemployment to rise to a nine-year high - 6.4%. If it stays at this pace, it could catch up to Texas. 30-thousand more jobs were deleted from payrolls last month. A revised figure revealed another 70-thousand were lost in May. And last week, Americans filing for new unemployment benefits rose to 430-thousand. That makes 20 weeks we've been above the 400-thousand mark, signifying a faltering and troubled labor market. That's the opposite of what economists expected. As reported by many news sources, since President Bush took office in January of 2001, 2 million jobs have vanished. "Is he or isn't he to blame?" will be the debate until the elections or until this disconcerting trend changes.
On a more positive note, the service industry was hopping in June. The Institute for Supply Management puts out an index of the non-manufacturing sector. Catching economists by surprise (so what else is new), the index jumped to 60.6. May was at 54.5. That's a big jump. The report also said employment, prices paid, and new orders were all up in the service sector.
So here we have it - three reports: two very negative, one positive, and yet they can all agree on one thing. Manufacturing cannot get out of bed. Lack of demand and cheaper imports are just a couple of items plaguing that sector. And the market has three days to contemplate it all.
So as we head in to the Fourth of July weekend, finding more ways to color our food red, white and blue than we ever thought we could, let's take a moment to reflect on our freedom and hope that all may find a brighter employed future soon. For KERA Marketplace Midday, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m.
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