Labor

While Friday's headline payrolls print - the lowest since May - was disappointing even to the biggest economic optimists, many found refuge in the sharp drop in the unemployment rate, which ticked lower to 4.5%, the lowest print in a decade. And yet there was a problem: with the unemployment rate tumbling, at least in theory indicating even less slack in the labor market, wage growth barely hit consensus estimates. Instead, if indeed the growth narrative is accurate, and if more people were employed, wages should be rising.

March was a month of giving back: after a very strong, if downward revised start to the year, with both January and February payrolls revised lower by a total of 38,000 jobs, March saw the worst job gains since May 2016, with only 98,000 jobs added. While many have claimed it was the weather's fault, the BLS reported that 164K people said they were unable to work in March due to poor weather conditions. This was just fractionally more than the 143K long-term average.

This is where the job gains, and losses, were:

Here is the consensus for the key numbers the BLS will report at 8:30am ET on Friday morning

Earlier this year a Trump draft executive order on foreign worker visas was leaked to the press and revealed the administration's intention to craft legislation prioritizing “the interests of American workers and — to the maximum degree possible — the jobs, wages, and well-being of those workers.”  That executive order was never issued, but it appears that some of the ideas it contained are now winding their way through the Trump administration.

Authored by Eric Zuesse via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Majorities want single-payer, but not from the government

58 % of Americans want «Replacing the ACA with a federally funded healthcare program providing insurance for all Americans». Only 37% oppose it. A tiny 5% have no opinion. That’s from a Gallup poll published 16 May 2016, «Majority in U.S. Support Idea of Fed-Funded Healthcare System».