Day after day we are blessed with media prognostications on the employment data. We are incessantly fed 'facts' and data that shows how great this recovery is but more still needs to be done (so please don't taper quite yet). We have been vociferous in the exposure of facts about the 'quality' versus 'quantity' of jobs in the 'recovery' [5] but there is another sentiment-sapping angle to the employment environment in the US. As Bloomberg's Rich Yamarone notes, the number of people with a job that were not at work in June or July because they were on vacation fell to 11.2 million this year from 11.59 million a year ago, a far cry from the 13.5 million vacationers in 2008 just prior to the Great Recession. Workers may be too uneasy with their situations to take off and enjoy the summer. Perhaps the need for a living real disposable personal income has kept them at their desks longer this year.
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Source: Bloomberg Briefs