Today’s unemployment report fails to give anyone a clear signal about whether or not the economic recovery is stable. According to this story from the Washington Post, 67,000 hires were made in August, but 54,000 jobs were lost. The jobless rate rose from July’s 9.5% to 9.6% in August, impacted by four major factors: 1) Manufacturing jobs fell, 2) More state and local government jobs were lost, 4) More of those temporary Census jobs were lost, and 4) More people unemployed people resumed their job search. Click here to see the story.
Implications: The stock market jumped a bit in response to the news, which some pundits expected to be worse. But much of the press I’ve seen early after this report was released provides a down-side perspective. Since consumer confidence (or lack of it) is so closely tied to a feeling of income security, I’m inclined to expect spending restraint to continue. That doesn’t mean people won’t spend. It means they will be prudent, judicious, careful. Not unlike the past three years.
The argument for carefully thinking about who your target consumer really is, and having a deep understanding of the benefits they seek through the purchase of your product or service, remains very strong.
Mike Anderson
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