<p>I don’t think that unemployment will tick down to 7% anytime soon. I did read today that Macy’s will be hiring 4,000 “high-paid” employees, mainly as buyers for their stores.</p>
<p>The $INDU is nearing 13,000, the $COMPq is approaching 3,000, gasoline prices are going up and the landlord for our kids’ apartment is raising the rent. They cite rising costs and they are right - the city has been cranking on property and other taxes and we’ve had the same rent rate for five years. The kids are moving out in a few months so the increase won’t affect them but I definitely smell inflation.</p>
<p>That said, the labor participation rate continues to go down which is not a good thing for taxes and deficits. I assume that people are choosing not to work for reasons other than that they need to given that U6 ticked up.</p>
<p>The new unemployment claims number this past week was 348,000 which is the lowest that it has been in several years.</p>