We still have 10 million fewer jobs than we did in February. Clawing the rest back at +245k per month will take basically forever. If this is the second half of the recovery, it's going to be grim
Payrolls in November rose a mere +245k. That's the sort of number you might see in a "normal" month, and definitely not what you're hoping for in the snapback from a covid-induced shutdown.
THE RECOVERY IS STALLING.
We still have 10 million fewer jobs than we did in February. Clawing the rest back at +245k per month will take basically forever. If this is the second half of the recovery, it's going to be grim
The virus is back, which hobbles the service sector, and stimulus has basically petered out, leaving the economy with little help. It doesn't have to be this way.

- State governments cut -243k jobs in March-May, and now an additional 134k since September.
- Local governments cut -1255k jobs March-May, and -187k since Sept.
And more cuts are ahead.
https://t.co/4RHutW5Q4E
Put another way: I don\u2019t think we should interpret jobs numbers or other economic data now the way we did in the 08-10 recession and recovery. Jobs (at least some jobs) going up when COVID is out of control is a failure of public health policy, not a success of economic policy.
— Dan Hirschman (@asociologist) December 4, 2020
The first act was firms re-opening and recalling furloughed workers.
The second act is harder: Millions lost their jobs permanently & there aren't many new opportunities opening up for them.
The second act is a grim slog.
https://t.co/tLb6uYhe9f
The unemployment rate fell from 6.9% to 6.7% in November. BUT... labor force participation fell so the employment rate fell.
— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) December 4, 2020
My measure of the "realistic" unemployment rate actually rose.
And the "full recall" unemployment rate rose.
Blog coming, a little on this now. pic.twitter.com/SbgA9VQorB
As people lose contact with the labor market, they lose connections, skills, and hope.

How many job reports like this will it take before the people arguing there is a trade off between health and the economy admit that getting control of the virus is critical for fixing the economy?
— Austan Goolsbee (@Austan_Goolsbee) December 4, 2020
[*Narrator: he already knew the answer to this question*]
More from Economy
"A trend factor using multiple time lengths outperforms ST reversal, momentum, and LT reversal, which are based on the three price trends separately."
https://t.co/udkvsdw2Lz

2/ This resembles combining multiple measures of ST reversal, momentum, and LT reversal (forecasts determined by walking forward rather than using signs from the full sample).
Unlike normal moving average signals, these are *cross-sectional.* More below:
https://t.co/wkIFLg9jtK

1/ Cross-Sectional and Time-Series Tests of Return Predictability: What Is the Difference? (Goyal, Jegadeesh)
— Darren \U0001f95a (@ReformedTrader) June 18, 2019
"The difference between the performances of TS and CS strategies is largely due to a time-varying net-long investment in risky assets."https://t.co/CSIn3ujN2R pic.twitter.com/XHnVmIart4
3/ Unsurprisingly, the Trend factor formed by this approach outperforms benchmarks in terms of both Sharpe ratio and tail metrics. It's combining momentum with two factors that are negatively correlated to it AND using multiple specifications.
More here:
https://t.co/x8Tloz3iyL

1/ An Executive Summary (in Tweet form) of our new paper
— Adam Butler (@GestaltU) March 27, 2019
Dual Momentum \u2013 A Craftsman\u2019s Perspective
Download here: https://t.co/Y9GlGNohBg
Everything that follows in this thread is based on HYPOTHETICAL AND SIMULATED RESULTS. pic.twitter.com/9m5YJnTdtq
4/ "Average return and volatility of the trend factor are both higher in recession periods. However, the Sharpe ratio is virtually the same.
"Interestingly, all of the factors still have positive average returns.
"Momentum experiences the greatest increase in volatility."

5/ "In terms of maximum drawdown and the Calmar ratio, the trend factor performs the best.
"The trend factor is correlated with the short-term reversal factor (35%), long-term reversal factor (14%), and the market (20%) but is virtually uncorrelated with the momentum factor."
