Jobs flat according to August employment report

According to the labor department and a story from today’s Washington Post, employment levels remained flat for the month of August.  The numbers arguably crept higher if you account for the Verizon strike involving 40,000+ workers, but that would still be considered beneath expectations.  Click here to see the story.

Implications:  Because job security is so central to everything the consumer does, we can expect jobs to be the lead story from now until November, 2012.  The methodical, more cautious consumer you’ve seen emerge these past few years will be hanging around for a while.

Mike Anderson, for the Elm Street Economics consumer trends blog. A service of The Center for Sales Strategy, Inc.