September 4, 2017

 

The long Labor Day weekend is always just a little bittersweet. As much as we love the extra day off, we know it also marks the end of summer, the return of cooler weather and, for many of us, a renewed focus on making those end-of-year numbers before the holidays hit.

 

This year, like the last several, we can get back into work mode without worrying too much about the state of the economy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the economy has not seen a net decline in the number of jobs since September 2010. That makes the 156,000 net new jobs in August the 83rd consecutive month of job gains, one month shy of seven years! 

 

But, about those 156,000 jobs... expectations were higher with predictions at about 200,000. The BLS also revised job numbers downward for June and July by 41,000, reflecting an economy that is expanding, but at a sluggish pace. Finally, unemployment ticked up to 4.4% from 4.3%. Not a big change, and nothing that anyone seems to think is worth losing sleep over. But it is not the robust growth than many have been hoping for, and that the stock markets still seem to believe is coming. Despite the mildly disappointing news, the equities markets continue to perform well with the Dow Jones just under 22,000 as I write this market review.  

 

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the latest round of economic news is the surprising weakness is wage growth. This is especially puzzling, given that the unemployment rate has been at or below 5% since September 2015. Generally, when unemployment falls to “full employment” levels (somewhere in the 5% range), pressure on wages increases. But that does not seem to be happening, at least not right now. The good news is that this may cause the Federal Reserve to hold off on further increases in interest rates. But the bad news is that, for a lot of Americans, wages are still barely keeping up with expenses.  

 

One big concern not reflected in any of these numbers is the impact of Hurricane Harvey which devastated Houston and other parts of the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast at the end of August. Houston alone accounts for approximately 3% of the US economy, and the state of Texas accounts for almost 10%. The flooding in the region was widespread, impacting residences and businesses alike. Even worse, there is at least a possibility that these horrors could be compounded by Hurricane Irma which is now a Category 4, and could potentially blow into the Gulf of Mexico later this week.

 

Putting aside the possibility of a second hurricane, the recovery from Hurricane Harvey is likely to take many months and cost tens of billions of dollars. Although fewer people died in Harvey than Katrina, the devastation could be more impactful on the national scene for the simple reason that Houston is a much larger and more economically important city than New Orleans.

 

We won’t know for another month what impact Hurricane Harvey had on the national economy, but it is hard to imagine that it will not be felt, at least in the short term. The statistics are staggering. One million cars unusable; 40,000 homes destroyed and many more damaged; oil refineries shut down. Just east of Houston, the entire city of Beaumont is still without running water. For tens of thousands of Texans, getting back to work will be difficult if not impossible. Even those with dry houses and working cars may find that their employers are shut down or inaccessible. For those whose cars were destroyed by the floods, just getting to work in car-dependent Houston will be a major challenge. 

 

Kind of makes crying over the end of summer seem a bit silly. There are worse problems in the world – just ask anyone who lived through Harvey.