Investment, Factory Orders Rising After Hurricanes

Popular Economics Weekly

The US Dollar’s decline against foreign currencies, mostly due to geopolitical worries such as N. Korea’s nuclear intentions, is already helping the manufacturing sector with a sharp rise in factory orders. This will be aided by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma’s boost in capital expenditures as major infrastructure upgrades will be necessary.

Any infrastructure improvements—such as roads, bridges, the power grid, water and sewer plants—enhances efficiency and job formation. It seems force majeure, or unavoidable catastrophes, are the only way our political parties seem to be able to agree on doing anything that boosts growth!

Graph Econoday

The factory sector has been slowly moving higher this year. Strength in aircraft has been a big plus but there are huge swings in monthly data. So the above graph excludes civilian aircraft and tracks both orders and shipments for all other manufactured goods. The story is one of recovery with growth moving to the solid 5 to 6 percent range after a long run of contraction tied to the 2014 collapse in oil.

The best factory news has been coming from the most critical area: core capital goods where strength reflects rising investment in future production. Orders have been strong two of the last three reports, up 1.0 percent in July and 0.8 percent in May. This will boost shipments over the next few months which are already on the rise, up 1.2 percent after June's 0.6 percent gain. An upswing in capital goods is auspicious for the factory sector which itself is considered a leading indicator for the economy as a whole.

Graph: Econoday

For all the damage they cause, these hurricanes will spur a gigantic rebuilding effort—maybe upwards of $200 billion in overall spending just to replace what was destroyed. That is 1/5 of President Trump’s original infrastructure proposal.

We have to start somewhere when our government can’t otherwise agree to rebuild our badly aging plants and equipment. The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report out today said there are 6.173 million job openings, and 5.5 million hires in August.

It is possible small business hires will pick up, as the National Federation of Independent Businesses Optimism Index rose 0.1 points in August to 105.3, matching the highest level since the 12-year high set in January. August's optimism reflected increases in the proportion of small business owners planning capital expenditures and anticipating higher sales. Capital expenditures plans in the next 3 to 6 months reached their highest level since 2006, the NFIB said.

Now is the best time for these businesses (80 percent of hires are by small businesses) will try a little harder to hire more of those 6 million that are actually available and want to return to work.

Harlan Green © 2017

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

We Have Reached Full Employment!

Financial fAQs

The U.S. added a modest 138,000 new jobs in May and hiring earlier in the spring was weaker than initially reported, adding to evidence that the tightest labor market in years is making it harder for companies to fill open jobs. So is this as good as it gets for employment and jobs?

The unemployment rate dropped to 4.3 percent because 429,000 workers dropped out of the civilian labor force, while the number of employed fell by 233,000 in the Household survey—one of two reports put out today by the Labor Department.

This was the lowest unemployment rate since 2001, while in March the private payroll (or Establishment) jobs total was revised downward to 50,000, and April was revised downward to 174,000 for a total of 66,000 fewer jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Graph: Marketwatch

But a very good total of 2.23 million jobs were created over the past 12 months, yet there are 5.7 million unfilled jobs in April, according to the BLS JOLTS report. In fact 429,000 fewer looked for work, either because they couldn’t find the job they liked, or more women are leaving the workforce to raise families according to one survey. Jobs are going begging, in other words, which is another sign of full employment.

As recently as 1990, the United States had one of the top employment rates in the world for women, says a 2014 NYTimes Upshot article, but it has now fallen behind many European countries. “After climbing for six decades, the percentage of women in the American work force peaked in 1999, at 74 percent for women between 25 and 54. It has fallen since, to 69 percent today.”

The reason? The lack of maternity leave and other social programs that would support child raising. In a New York Times/CBS News/Kaiser Family Foundation poll of nonworking adults aged 25 to 54 in the United States, conducted last month in the same Upshot article, “61 percent of women said family responsibilities were a reason they weren’t working, compared with 37 percent of men. Of women who identify as homemakers and have not looked for a job in the last year, nearly three-quarters said they would consider going back if a job offered flexible hours or allowed them to work from home.”

So where do we go from here? What will draw those back into the labor force the approximately 6 million working age adults that no longer want to work at the moment? There is plenty of job growth in Health, Leisure and Hospitality, Professional and business services, and construction, since the housing market is still perking along.

Graph: Econoday

Maybe we should forget about that magical 3 percent GDP growth goal the Trump administration says we can reach with their proposed tax and regulation cuts. The US population isn’t growing as fast as during the baby boom and labor productivity is stuck in the 1 percent range, in part because businesses aren’t investing in new plants and equipment, as we said yesterday.

Harlan Green © 2017

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

This is A Goldilocks Economy!

Financial fAQs

Economists have debated just what ideal economic growth should be, but the Federal Reserve does it for us. The Fed defines ideal growth as when we are at full employment with moderate inflation, inflation that says an economy isn’t overheating (Goldilocks’ porridge is too hot), or the economy is below its growth potential (it’s too cold).

Could we already be at that ideal of an economy that’s not growing too fast, or wants for jobs to be filled? We are at a 4.4 percent unemployment rate, the low of this 8-year growth cycle, and there are 5.7 million unfilled jobs in April, according to the Labor Department’s JOLTS report.

Maybe we should forget about that magical 3 percent GDP growth goal the Trump administration says we can reach with their proposed tax and regulation cuts. Our population isn’t growing as fast as during the baby boom and labor productivity is stuck in the 1 percent range, in part because businesses aren’t investing in new plants and equipment.

Graph: Econoday

But why should corporations invest more with weak Q1 2017 growth at 1.2 percent? Though second Quarter GDP growth may be picking up, which always seems to happen at this time of year. Consumer confidence is holding steady at an unusually strong level, 117.9 in May for the sixth straight reading over 110 and following a revised 119.4 in April and 124.9 in March which were the two best months of the expansion, reports the Conference Board.

So it’s been consumers that have held up this 8-year growth cycle, rather than corporations, which haven’t invested their record profits in expanded production; though profits are up 12 percent this quarter, after another record 22 percent surge in fourth quarter 2016.\

And consumer spending is showing signs of more life as well in April, as the consumer benefited from strong wage gains, kept money in the bank, and was an active shopper at least compared to the first quarter. If both confidence and spending continue to increase at these rates, then a 3 percent growth rate could be achievable for Q2. But that can only be short term without either higher productivity or population growth.

The key positive in the May report is jobs-hard-to-get which is a closely watched current assessment of the labor market. This reading pf the PCE index is down a very sizable 1.2 percentage points to a very low 18.2 percent for a new expansion best, reports Econoday. But inflation is still subpar with the core PCE inflation rate (without gas and food) rising just 1.5 percent.

This is not a good sign for future growth, as we need 3 to 4 percent inflation in an economy growing faster—such as maybe 3 percent, which the Trump administration is predicting for GDP growth this year. It’s really what are called core capital goods—investments in plant and equipment—that will determine future growth, and businesses haven’t yet begun to spend that kind of money with their record profits.

We wonder if businesses are waiting for those promised tax and regulation cuts? The Trump administration can’t accomplish much with executive orders, so Congress has to find a way to compromise. The health care deadlock should tell them that they need Democrats to bring that about, since Republican moderates and extremists can’t agree among themselves.

So maybe we should be happy that we are in the eighth year of this growth cycle, even with 2 percent growth.  We have in fact achieved a goldilocks, steady growth economy .

Harlan Green © 2017

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

Poverty Level Down, As Incomes Surge

Popular Economics Weekly

Fewer Americans lived in poverty in 2015 and median incomes charted their first increase since the Great Recession, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Department. The official poverty rate fell 1.2 percentage points between 2014 and 2015 to 13.5 percent, and the number of people in poverty fell by 3.5 million, Census said. The threshold for a family of two adults and two children to be considered living in poverty was $24,036.

Graph: Census Bureau

And new data showing middle-class household incomes growing at the fastest rate since the recession seemed to confirm that a recovery that’s remained slow and uneven is finally touching the lives of ordinary, especially middle-class Americans.

Graph: Marketwatch

In fact, this could be the income growth needed to bring US back to 3 percent GDP growth; something that hasn’t happened since 2007 before the Great Recession. Millions of Americans escaped poverty last year and incomes rose at their biggest gainever, as the 6-year long economic recovery finally hit home for households. Median middle-class wages surged 5.2 percent between 2014 and 2015, the Census Department said Tuesday, the first annual increase since 2007, just before the economy plunged into recession.

This is in large part due to almost non-existent inflation, which has not returned to even the Fed’s 2 percent target, hence the reluctance of Janet Yellen’s Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at all this year. But that may change, as rising wages also have an effect on inflation, since wages make up some two-thirds of product costs.

An even better way to increase growth is to invest more in what would grow our economy; like infrastructure, education, R&D, the environment, etc. That’s why productivity has ground to a halt, which is the main driver of future growth.

At least 43 companies plan to cut, or leave unchanged, their capital spending levels in 2016, while about 20 are increasing, according to a Reuters review of Standard & Poor's 500 companies that have given explicit early guidance.

However, Citibank seems to disagree. It’s mainly the energy sector that has cut back on new investments due to the slump in energy prices. This, however, is boosting growth in capex spending in other sectors, says Tobias Levkovich, Citigroup chief equity strategist. There's no reason to think stock buybacks, the current straw man for the lack of productive investment, are replacing capital expenditures. Rather, he said, they are complementing them.

"While misperceptions abound when it comes to companies allegedly not investing in their businesses and preferring to buy back stock instead, there is little corroborating evidence," Levkovich argued. "S&P 500 companies have had capital investment dollars ahead of the amount used for buybacks for more than four and a half years and capex has hit a record every year since 2011."

And a major reason for this is the low cost of capital is today’s low inflationary environment. So there is good reason to keep interest rate as low as possible, until we see signs of more normal GDP growth.

Harlan Green © 2016

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

The Consumers Is Happy

Financial FAQs

The consumer is happier, at least, due mostly to higher wages, even if overall economic growth is lagging. Consumer sentiments and retail sales are rebounding after a punk first quarter. Corporations don’t want to invest in new plants and equipment—so-called capex spending—so they have to boost their employees incomes in order to convince them to work longer hours and produce more.

Sales at U.S. retailers rose a solid 0.5 percent in May after an even larger gain in the prior month, suggesting consumers still feel confident enough in the economy to stick to their usual spending patterns despite a slowdown in hiring. The sales gains were widespread. Auto dealers, Internet retailers, clothing outlets, gas stations, sporting-goods stores and restaurants all saw a healthy uptick in sales.

This is in large part because small businesses, which employ most of US, are hiring again. The Index of Small Business Optimism rose two tenths of a point in May to 93.8, according to the National Federation of Small Businesses (NFIB) monthly economic survey released today.

Graph: NFIB

Fifty-six percent reported hiring or trying to hire (up 3 points), but 48 percent reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill. Hiring activity increased substantially, but apparently the “failure rate” also rose as more owners found it hard to identify qualified applicants. ... Twenty-seven percent of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period, down 2 points, but historically strong.

It is in line with the Labor Department’s JOLTS report, which showed 5.8 million job openings, and just 5.1 million hires in April. There are plenty of unfilled jobs, in other words. Why aren’t corporations investing more in capital expenditures? It is hurting economic growth in a big way.

Graph: Econoday

The second revision to first-quarter productivity fell at a quarter-to-quarter annualized pace of 0.6 percent, reports Econoday. It took a 1.5 percent rise in hours in the quarter to produce a 0.9 percent gain in output. With the labor market nearing full employment, this mismatch may very well become increasingly urgent for national policy. Not only did hours exceed output, compensation rose at the same time, up 3.9 percent to lift unit labor costs by an outsized 4.5 percent.

The lack of capex investment is puzzling economists, but one reason has to be they don’t have to, sitting on record profits and $4.5 trillion is cash and cash equivalent assets. Corporations would rather buy back their stock to boost stock prices, and so enrich their stockholders and CEOs than their employees and consumers.

But that will soon change, as corporations will have to continue to pay their employees more, or begin again to invest in expanding their productivity.

Harlan Green © 2016

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

STOP Blaming the Consumers

Financial FAQs

It’s time to stop blaming consumers for the jobless recovery. The pundits have come up with too many reasons for their depressed confidence to list here, (at least according to the polls).

"Hopes for full global recovery in the next 12 months substantially weakened in the second quarter as the majority of consumers around the world remained in a recessionary mindset", said one survey.

Then why are U.S. consumers actually spending more, as evidenced by the latest retail sales in almost every area, almost as much as during boom times—7.9 percent annually? They are also paying down their debts and saving more. Maybe it’s their way of railing against the system that gives rewards to the wealthiest, like the #OccupyWallStreet protesters are doing.

Graph: Inside Debt

Overall retail sales in September jumped 1.1 percent, following a 0.3 percent increase (originally no change). The September number topped consensus expectations for a 0.8 percent surge. Retail sales on a year-ago basis in September stood at 7.9 percent, compared to 7.5 percent in August. Excluding motor vehicles, sales were up 7.8 percent on a year-on-year basis, compared to 7.9 percent the prior month.

Today's sales numbers are a relief for equities, says Econoday, adding to the argument that the economy is gradually improving and not returning to recession. Based in these numbers, third quarter GDP growth estimates are already being revised upward.

The biggest increase was in motor vehicle sales. Inventories previously held back by disrupted supply in Japan are flowing again.  Car buyers responded by boosting overall unit new motor vehicle sales to an annualized 13.1 million units which were up 8.0 percent from August’s 12.1 million units.

So what is holding back job growth, if not consumer spending? Total personal consumption expenditures are running at maybe half normal, but business investment is still rising—witness the strong capital goods numbers. So it is really technology investments that have boosted production instead of new workers, and of course globalization that has exported so much production overseas.

The 1.1 percent rebound in nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft was a big plus, following a 0.2 percent decline in July.  Shipments for this series jumped 2.8 percent in August after a 0.4 percent rise the month before. Overall, manufacturing remains on a moderate uptrend, taking into account the volatility of durables orders.

So while businesses may not be hiring people, it clearly looks like they are “hiring” equipment with the rise in nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, says Econoday. 

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera recently reread a book on the history of the Great Depression by Frederick Lewis Allen, and the problems were just the same.

 “In “Since Yesterday,” he says, “bankers are vilified; homes are foreclosed on; people desperately search for work — just like today. Businessmen speak of the need for “confidence,” a word that “enters the vocabulary only when confidence is lacking.” Elsewhere Allen writes, “No longer were vital economic decisions made at international conferences of bankers; now they were made only by the political leaders of states.”

And…“while small business suffered terribly during the Great Depression, big corporations did well. When large companies needed to lay off workers to maintain profitability, they did so ruthlessly. Bursts of economic growth, however, were rarely accompanied by an increase in employment. Why? Because new technology allowed companies to increase productivity at the expense of workers. Just like today”, said Nocera.

So it is a wondrous thing to see consumers hanging in there, in spite of chaotic markets and dysfunctional politicians. Maybe we are seeing some of the innate optimism Americans are famous for. So watch out, politicians. Consumers seem to be finding a way around the economic and political gridlock that is stopping this recovery from putting more people back to work.

Harlan Green © 2011