Trusted Economic Perspectives
The “Fake Tight” Labor Market
From a national perspective, it certainly isn’t tight. Total nonfarm payrolls were 144.9 million in May 2021, still down 7.6 million from February 2020, right before the COVID shutdowns.
May ISM Manufacturing Index
The ISM Manufacturing Index rose to 61.2 in May, narrowly beating the consensus expected 61.0. (Levels higher than 50 signal expansion; levels below 50 signal contraction.)
Overstimulation on the Way
Later this week we’ll get an update on real GDP growth for the 4th quarter of 2020. We estimate that’ll be revised up to a 4.3% annual rate of growth from a prior estimate of 4.0%.
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