Investors focus on jobs, growth and Europe

(MoneyWatch) Eat plenty at your Memorial Day BBQ, because you're going to need your energy in the holiday-shortened week ahead. The highlight will be the all-important May employment report. In the first four months of the year, monthly job creation averaged 200,000. That number sounds good, until you realize that there are really two numbers: January - February, which saw an average of 267,000 jobs created and March - April, where the average was just 135,000. The consensus for May is 150,000 jobs created and the unemployment rate will remain at 8.1 percent.

While three years ago, having any job gains would have been welcome, with the recovery in progress, the downward trend is troublesome. The May report will help determine whether the springtime dip in job creation was temporary, or indicative of a more worrisome trend. Either way, another group of college graduates will enter a difficult work force. According to recent research from Rutgers University, only 51 percent of recent graduates (classes of 2009-2011) were employed full time and the median starting salary for these young workers has dropped 10 percent from before the recession, to $27,000. This may lead some to think, "Why go to college?" The answer is simple: Not attending college will hurt your job prospects more. The unemployment rate for college graduates may be higher than it was before the recession, but it is still about half the national average. Bottom line: Don't give up on college yet.

After blaming the weather for the slowdown in job growth, a more boring thesis is gaining popularity: Global growth is slowing down. In the first quarter, the U.S. economy grew at an inflation-adjusted annual rate of 2.2 percent, down from the fourth quarter's 3 percent rate, but up from the total 2011 rate of 1.7 percent. This week, the government will release the second estimate of U.S. growth, which is expected to match the original estimate.

In China, a report of declining manufacturing activity has prompted many to wonder whether the world's engine of growth is sputtering amid a stalling real estate market. A similar downshift is playing out across many parts of the world, including Brazil, India and South Africa. Last week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reduced estimates for 2012 global growth.

And then there's the euro zone, where business activity plunged at the steepest rate in almost three years. It's hard to mull up anything but doom about Europe, as it teeters on the edge of disaster. The latest example of European slow-motion crisis was seen Friday, when Spain pumped 19 billion euros into its third largest bank to soothe worried depositors and to try to prevent a bank run, jog or walk. It's hard to keep an economy afloat amid these kinds of stresses. In its bi-annual global economic outlook, the OECD said the euro zone would shrink 0.1 per cent in 2012 and grow a mere 0.9 per cent in 2013, unless everything falls apart, in which case all bets are off.

The next four weeks leading up to the second Greek elections (mark your calendar for June 17!) will likely feel like an eternity, highlighted by rumors, dueling polls and market volatility. But for this week, investors brushed aside concerns and stock indexes gained ground.

-- DJIA: 12,454, up 0.7% on week, up 1.9% on year

-- S&P 500: 1,317, up1.7% on week, up 4.8% on year

-- NASDAQ: 2,837, 2.1%, up 8.9% on year

-- June Crude Oil: $90.86, down 1% on week

-- June Gold: $1568.90, down 1.4% on the week

-- AAA National Average Price for Gallon of Regular Gas: $3.65

THE WEEK AHEAD:

Mon 5/28: US MARKETS CLOSED FOR MEMORIAL DAY

Tue 5/29:

9:00 S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index

10:00 Consumer Confidence

10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey

Weds 5/30:

7:00 MBA mortgage purchase applications index

7:30 Challenger Job Cut Report

10:00 Pending Home Sales

Thurs 5/31:

Chain Store Sales

CFTC holds forum on the Volcker Rule

8:15 ADP Employment report

8:30 Weekly jobless claims

8:30 Q1 GDP (2nd estimate)

8:30 Corporate Profits

9:45 Chicago PMI

Fri 6/1:

Motor Vehicle Sales

China PMI for April

8:30 May Employment report

8:30 Personal Income and Spending

10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index

10:00 Construction Spending

[hypnotoad72]

Well, since people have tons in college debt to be "competitive", let's not complain about the housing market. Wages, education, housing -- anyone looking at inflation can tell very quickly how massive the imbalance for the middle class is, and how much of the brunt they're taking.

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/01/vicious-cycle-stagnant-wages

http://www.realitybase.org/journal/2009/3/10/the-american-dream-died-in-february-1973.html

But I'm sure more tax breaks, tax cuts, subsidy, and even bailout to corporations will allow them to create more jobs? Especially to those that offshore the jobs, yes? (With everything I've posted in the past, it looks as if the middle class is being wrung dry with those at the top claiming "best profit ever" when it's little more than "profiteering"... including those in the "developing countries". The hurt workers endure is worldwide as well.

The system is broken.

So, what are possible solutions?

I can think of any number of things, but it's more fun to read others' ideas for once...

[ProtectAmericanJobs]

I consider myself an independent voter, but going back to the Reagan days and with the only exception having been Perot, I've always voted Republican. All this single-minded, left versus right, ideological one dimensional bull has got to go! This is the problem with our country. It shouldn't be about Democrats or Republicans! It should be about Americans, especially our elected officials, doing the right thing for our country and it's citizens.

Both parties have sold out the bulk of the American citizens, who they're supposed to represent, by allowing the "out-sourcing" floodgates to open wider and wider without taking any sensible measures to stem the tide. (Under Clinton jobs to China, Under Bush I & II influx of illegals or cheap easily abused labor into the US and jobs to Mexico/NAFTA) Our leaders are elected by the Citizens of the United States of America to represent the interests of those citizens and the country itself. They are NOT elected by the Global Market Place or foreign citizens!

We need whoever wins the next election to Start Protecting American Jobs and do whatever it takes to bring back the jobs they let go. They've got to give us somebody who will stand up for the American people.

We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Let's guess why. Oh that's right, tariff is a dirty word. Hum, maybe it's that our so called leaders (political leaders) are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.

I guess we should keep letting Corp Boards, Wall Street, CEOs and Foreign Lobbyists promote sending US jobs to countries where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. How's that been working for us?

The so called "Global Market Place" is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by "out sourcing", but they've been putting middle class Americans who are a good part of the world's customer base out of work. I'm not a lefty or member of any union. I run a business that employs over 20 people and produces products that are purchased by customers that do manufacturing and packaging. I'm just an average Joe, but I've been saying this for more than 10 years now. If I can see it, so can our so called leaders (political leaders) who are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.

We need to add tariffs that are proportionate to the inequities in wages and regulations in the country where the goods were produced and or where we're importing them from. We could then use the money raised by these tariffs to help companies build state of the art manufacturing plants here in the USA, which would create more jobs here at home for US citizens, which would then in turn increase our income tax revenue.

Bringing manufacturing back to the US not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. This should also include the safe harvesting, production and distribution of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. Let's keep that money and those jobs here in the US.

These so-called "free trade agreements" have to go. It was obvious when they were passing these agreements as to what was going to happen and sure enough it did. Our leaders had to have known this as well when they were passing these bills. It's just common sense. We also need to bring customer support services back to the United States of America and staff them with employees who are US Citizens.

The "Global Market Place" is not a level playing field! The whole idea of the tariffs is so we can pay our factory workers a decent wage and not be blown out by these other countries where they don't play by the same rules.

We may have to pay a bit more for products made here in the USA by US citizens, but at least we'll still have jobs and a future for our children.

The bottom line is that "Our Government" has to protect American industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.