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<p>If you look at the weekly unemployment reports, they are consistent
with slow job growth and not yet near a level to get a lot of people
back to work. The U6 number which includes discouraged workers ticked
down but 15.1% real unemployment isn’t anything to party over. Things
are improving slowly though.</p>
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<p>A salary increase isn’t the same thing as new jobs getting created. If
enough new jobs get created, though, then salary increases will come
too.</p>
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<p>It would have to pick up a lot more steam. We need 90K jobs each
month just to keep up with population growth. In that context, 250K
per month with 15 million unemployed does not a ton of inflation
make.</p>
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<p>I’m a believer in markets for housing and would like to see a bottom
process. Housing prices are not supported by incomes, especially if
they are zero. I believe that employment should drive the housing
market; not the other way around.</p>