Barry Ritholtz, Columnist

Job Market Is Getting Stronger, Not Weaker

Data shows payroll-tax withholding is rising at a good pace, indicating that employers are adding workers.

June 13, 2016 at 3:20 PM UTC

Barry Ritholtz is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is chairman and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and was previously chief market strategist at Maxim Group. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”

Oh no! The BLS report just arrived.
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The reaction after May’s disappointing jobs report was predictable: The candidates babbled, markets trembled, and expectations that the Federal Reserve would raise rates this month or next were suddenly off the table. All of this because the net increase in a group of more than 150 million employed people was 0.02533 percent versus analysts’ estimates of 0.10533 percent. That’s before we account for either 35,000 workers out on strike (0.02333 percent) or the margin of error of 100,000 (0.06667 percent).

I have discussed the problems of trying to model the economy in real time too many times to detail here. But let’s not look at the employment situation. Instead, let’s consider some data involving actual dollars.