The Job Market September 2015 Presents a Bleaker Outlook than Expected

When the news came that the job market was sitting at 5.1 percent, everyone was quite excited, and with good reason. There was some hope that an increase of this nature would cause a hike in interest rates, but the Fed ultimately determined that the market was simply not stable enough, and a decrease may be likely. The job market September 2015 report did not show much promise, however, as a total of 94,610,000 were not in the labor force. Since August the number has increased by 579,000, meaning the labor force participation has managed to reach its lowest point in 38 years.

Another disappointing turn of events is that the economy has added just 142,000 jobs in September, and this is far below the predictions of our economists. Still, despite that, the unemployment rate stayed right at 5.1 percent. The number of unemployed Americans is rising, but this is not all due to a lack of employment.

Baby Boomers

It should be noted that much of the unemployment we are seeing is a direct result of baby-boomers finally retiring, which is simply a matter of course. There of course fewer Americans entering the work force, and in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics came to the conclusion that 251,325,000 individuals age 16 or older were not in a military institution, but 156,715,000 of those were either holding down a job or actually looking for one. Unfortunately that is just over half, and it is not a great number.

Will They or Won’t They?

So when WILL the Fed get around to the business of raising interest rates? While there are many advocates for the raise, there are also those who are not afraid to say that the fed should remain cautious, and with good reason. Right now it is estimated the rates will see a hike on December 16 or potentially March 16, 2016. The state of the American economy is not the only factor that needs to be considered in this. There is also the shaky global economy, particularly the Chinese economy which has been decreased after recent shenanigans, so to speak. We won’t get into the stock market fiasco at the moment, but their mistakes have cost the market considerably. It is risky, to say the least, to raise interest rates here in the United States as everything is so interconnected. The Federal Commission had this to say recently regarding the interest rates:

“The committee anticipates that it will be appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate when it has seen further improvement in the labor market and is reasonably confident that inflation will move back to its 2 percent objective over the medium term.”

The ‘Goldilocks’ report from last month seems to have taken a bit of a blow as employment continues to drop, making the future uncertain and the economy stagnant, to say the least. At this point, the best that we will be able to do is wait and see what happens, and how it will affect our economy.

Recovering from a job loss or you need help getting your finances back on track? It would be a great time to talk to an attorney at Van Horn Law Group about your options.