Jobs reports are always among the most anticipated economic reports we receive. They’ve taken on added significance in recent months with the increased drumbeat of recession concerns being voiced by people alleging that trade policy has led us into a recession. Well, there’s still no evidence of one. The growth from mid-sized and large businesses is solid, especially given the already exceptionally low unemployment rate.
Obviously, we’d like to higher small business growth. We’ve seen small businesses lag in job growth for most of the past couple of years as small companies have struggled to compete with larger companies for talent in the tight labor market. Is this more of the same or a sign of a slowing down in the economy? We’ll know more next month. In the meantime, it's a given that we didn’t start the 4th quarter with negative economic growth. Small businesses wouldn’t be adding even 17k employees in a month if the economy were heading south.
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