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Stocks inch higher on strong December jobs report – Bed Bath & Beyond bankruptcy warning – US has 4 million missing workers
US stock futures moved upward on Friday after the December jobs report showed the economy added more jobs than expected as well as a drop in unemployment.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both notched up by 0.4%, while contracts on the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite moved higher by about 0.5%, Yahoo Finance reported.
The US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures, which had plunged nearly 10% this week, were trading at around $73 per barrel on Friday morning.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was down -0.049 for a yield of 3.673% as of 9:05 AM EST.
December 2022’s jobs report showed the US added 223,000 non-farm payrolls, more than the expected 202,000, while unemployment fell to 3.5%, lower than the 3.7% expected, according to data released by the Department of Labor on Friday, Yahoo Finance reported.
However, average hourly earnings were down over expectations, with month-over-month earnings at +0.3% vs. +0.4% expected and year-over-year average hourly earnings at +4.6% vs. +5.0% expected.
Giant home goods chain Bed Bath & Beyond announced it is running out of money and may need to file for bankruptcy or shut down operations. The company announced on Thursday it “has concluded that there is substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
The company said it will consider all financial options, including restructuring, selling assets, or going through bankruptcy, NPR reported.
“These measures may not be successful,” the company added.
As soon as markets opened on Thursday, Bed Bath & Beyond’s stock price dropped over 20 percent.
The great resignation is far from over, and America is wondering: Where are all the workers?
In November 2022, there were 10.4 million jobs available, but only 6 million people were looking for a job, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, FOXBusiness reported. If all the unemployed people suddenly found a job, there would still be a shortage of 4 million workers.
For 13 consecutive months, the number of available jobs in the US has been over 10 million. Before the pandemic began in February 2020, the highest number of available jobs on record had been 7.7 million. Currently, there are approximately 1.7 job openings for each unemployed American. Where are all the workers? Speculation ranges from people retiring early, people not wanting to work, or the possibility that – despite widespread job availability – there is a shortage of properly “skilled labor” to fill a large number of jobs.
