For many months, the general consensus was that the "malaise" in US manufacturing (which is clearly in a recession) is isolated, and would not spread to the service sector. That is no longer the case.
As a very gloomy Markit report noted earlier,
"business activity stagnated in February as malaise spread from the manufacturing sector to services. The Markit PMIs are signalling a stagnation of the economy in February, suggesting growth has deteriorated further since late last year. Prices pressures are waning again in line with faltering demand. Average prices charged for goods and services are dropping once again, down for the first time in five months, as firms compete to win new business."
And then it was the ISM's turn where despite a modest beat to expectations, overall growth in U.S. service industries slowed for a fourth straight month in February, prompting the first job cuts in two years as the Employment indicator dipped from 52.1 to 49.7, the first contraction in two years.
This means that not only are manufacturing jobs suffering mass layoffs, but the service sector - ostensibly now that the second tech bubble has burst - is next.
We wonder how long until the US Bureau of Labor Services discovers this.
With 188,000 for tomorrow's jobs data, this chart suggests things may be a little different to what the economists expect.
And judging by the lagged effect of the collapse of the Restaurant Performance Index, that party is over...
h/t @noalpha_allbeta
Just like it was in 2008...