U.S. loses 140,000 jobs in first monthly loss since spring

George Friedman’s take on the number is that many businesses are permanently lightening ship. The economic damage is now long term.

Those 140,000 cuts were made largely by businesses that have a profound understanding of the business they are in and of the appetite of their customers for what they sell. Most businesses have always controlled the number of people they employ – that is, not maintaining a mass of disposable staff. So when they cut jobs, they cut deep, and if they are cutting to the bone they are seeing something unpleasant coming. The cuts will not show up in unemployìjjment figures, nor in banking numbers, nor most certainly in the stock markets.

But it will show up. The post hoc ergo propter hoc impulse ensures that an economic crisis will be blamed on something. What would that be?

U.S. loses 140,000 jobs in first monthly loss since spring

At the same time, the unemployment rate stayed at 6.7%, the first time it hasn’t fallen since April.