Economy

Those Old Unexpected Blues

By Geoffrey Norman
Published January 10, 2014 2:22pm ET
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Big surprise and nobody called it. Here we were, in the midst of all these signs and indicators pointing to an economy that was warming up for takeoff, a recovery that had finally taken hold, an end to the need for stimulus via the Fed. And what happened is, as reported on CNN/Money:

Job growth slumped sharply in December, falling far short of expectations. The economy added only 74,000 jobs … weakest month for job growth since January 2011 and came as a huge surprise to economists, who were expecting an addition of 193,000 jobs.

For the last five years the talk has been of recovery and a return to growth. The reality has been one of an economy that is dead in the water.  But say this, anyway, it has been remarkably consistent, as measured by the number of adults holding jobs.  The number at the end of each of the last five years, in millions: 58.3, 58.3, 58.5, 58.6, 58.6.

So where do they get “unexpected?”

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