All About Jobs

The news this past week was all about the debt level in 4 European Countries and Jobs. Remember about 2 years ago when Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden said the 2008 election was about 3 letters, JOBS. Well, this past week was also about JOBS.

This morning's Charlotte Observer had the top story on jobs with several employment statistics on the front page. The cartoon in the paper had a saddled horse titled Economy with a person running on the ground after it titled Jobs. This week, we had at least 10 job related statistics published with a variety of meanings. Instead of going through each statistic let's stay with the big picture, the bottom line is employment is stable.

Last quarter we had a 5.7% increase in the economy as measured by the Gross Domestic Product, GDP. We also had reports on the manufacturing and service sectors that also showed growth during January. So how can the economy grow without an increase in jobs? The answer is that during last quarter we had a 6.2% increase in productivity as defined by the output per employee. So employers are in aggregate working people longer hours, paying overtime in required, instead of hiring people.

Employers work people more hours than hiring more people because it is more cost effective and prefer to hire when economic recovery is more certain. An overtime rate of about 10% is typically viewed as being a reasonable level before hiring more people. So this means that the job situation is fairly normal for this stage of an economic recovery, people need to chill out!!!

This week we had companies reporting earnings and for the most part they were better than anticipated. In fact, Cisco reported that from their perspective the economy has hit a new higher level in the economic recovery. With all this good news, the stock market went kind of psycho and ended the week down slightly.

From an investing perspective, it means that even with this volatility the longer term economic trend remains intact. For investors with a longer term perspective, the current investing strategy should be maintained.

Snow Shoveling Info:

The good news is that 15 minutes of snow shoveling counts as moderate physical activity according to the 1996 Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health. We all should aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity of some kind on most days of the week. Brisk walking or social dancing are other ways to fit in moderate physical activity during cold winter months.

The bad news is that researchers have reported an increase in the number of fatal heart attacks among snow shovelers after heavy snowfalls. This rise may be due to the sudden demand that shoveling places on an individual's heart. Snow shoveling may cause a quick increase in heart rate and blood pressure. One study determined that after only two minutes of shoveling, sedentary mens' heart rates rose to levels higher than those normally recommended during aerobic exercise.

Shoveling may be vigorous activity even for healthy college-aged students. A study performed by researchers at North Dakota State University determined that, based on heart rate, shoveling was a moderately intense activity for college-aged subjects most of the time but was vigorous activity during about one-third of their shoveling time of 14 minutes.

Shoveling can be made more difficult by the weather. Cold air makes it harder to work and breathe, which adds some extra strain on the body. There also is the risk for hypothermia, a decrease in body temperature, if one is not dressed correctly for the weather conditions.