Opening Statement from the October 2020 Intelligent Investor (part 1)

Opening Statement from the October 2020 Intelligent Investor (part 1)

Originally published on October 7, 2020

Economy

The slow pace of improvements in the U.S. labor market serves as one of many indicators confirming our long-held view that recovery from the COVID-induced global recession will be long and difficult. 

As further evidence of this claim, on October 2 the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an increase of only  661,000 jobs in September, which was less that the 800,000 estimate.

Although the unemployment rate fell from 8.5% the previous month to 7.9%, much of the decline was due to jobless workers no longer being counted.

The September jobs data also revealed a sizable increase in long-term unemployment (a duration of 27 weeks or more) of 781,000, raising the total to 2.4 million. Moreover, 7.3 million workers have now been without a job for at least 15 weeks.

Although the economy added 4.8 million jobs in June...