4/09/2006

Investors on Wall Street are thinking it's getting too easy for you to find a new job

Most business sections make dull reading and do poor job of explaining the economic news, but I have always found The Mercury News business section future-60-Second Biz Break has some of the best headlines. Look at some of these recent ones:
  • Your brighter job prospects upset investors on Wall Street
  • Mortgage rates rise, but so do your Apple shares
  • It's a Windows world, but now your new Mac can live in it
Investors on Wall Street are thinking it's getting too easy for you to find a new job. Worried about the impact of a tightening labor market on the economy, they sold off stocks today, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down 96.46, or 0.9 percent, to 11,120.04, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index down 22.15, or 0.94 percent, to 2,339.02.

Wall Street's worries were prompted by the Labor Department's monthly report today that showed the nation's employers added 211,000 payroll jobs in March, better than the 190,000 economists had expected. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, dropped to 4.7 percent, its lowest point in 4 1/2 years.

Of course, stock investors are pleased enough that people are working, spending money and contributing to corporate profits. But it seems that some of you are asking for -- and even getting -- raises, pushing average hourly earnings up 0.2 percent and sparking inflation fears.

That has traders worried that the Federal Reserve might keep raising its key interest rate, maybe as high as 5 1/4 percent, which would result in higher borrowing costs for corporations and consumers.

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