Recession Looming? Not If You Look at U.S. Jobs Numbers

While there’s been a modest slowdown from the robust economic forecasts for 2016, and while the sheep on Wall Street are running scared, I see no evidence of a U.S. recession in 2016.
The latest U.S. employment figures show a solid 242,000 jobs added in February–numbers that exceed the past six-month job gain average. Weaker January figures were also revised upward to 172,000 jobs.
These numbers are more predictive of 2.5% GDP growth rather than downward revisions of 2.2% or 2.3% from IMF and Moody’s.

The U.S. unemployment rate now stands at 4.9%, and labor force participation increased by 0.2% to 62.9%.
Plain and simple, the numbers don't jive with fearmongers' claims that the sky is falling.

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Pete Gioia is an economist with CBIA. Follow him on Twitter @CTEconomist.