US DATA: NFIB on jobs in their Jan survey: “Reports of net job
creation continued to oscillate around the ‘0’ line. Asked about changes
in total employment over the last three months, 11 percent of owners
reported increasing employment at their firms by an average of 2.8
workers while 15 percent reported reducing total employment, an average
of 2.9 workers per firm. Clearly, there has been no surge in hiring in
the last few months. This produced a reduction of -0.15 workers per
firm. In normal times, this measure would be in the range of 0.1 to 0.2
workers per firm and in a strong recovery, much larger, as was the case
in 1983. The percent of owners reporting hard to fill job openings was
unchanged from December, at 13 percent, the best reading in 24 months.
This indicates that the unemployment rate should be steady or even
improve a bit in the months ahead. Plans to create jobs lost 3 pts.”