Daily Pulse: US Nudges Into 'Full Employment', What Disasters Could Cost, Millennial Self-Loathing

[Updated at 9:44 am ET with the report] US job growth slowed, but the headline unemployment number dropped to 5.1% — within the range economists consider "full employment." And there was finally some indication that the desired effect of labor outstripping demand is starting to take effect: average hourly earnings increased 8 cents, the biggest rise since January, and the workweek rose to 34.6 hours.

According to the August jobs report the private sector added 173,000 jobs last month, the lowest uptick in five months and well below July's revised 245k. "The report, however, may have been tarnished by a statistical fluke that in recent years has frequently led to sharp upward revisions to payroll figures for August after initial weak readings," writes Lucia Mukitani for Reuters. Indeed: "Payrolls data for June and July were revised to show 44,000 more jobs created than previously reported."

A broader measure of joblessness that includes part-timers and people who want to work but have given up searching also fell, to 10.3% from 10.4%. [ — John C Abell, for Isabelle, hopefully fast asleep on the other side of the world.]

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World powers are meeting to talk about the misbehaving kid in the group. G20 finance ministers and central bankers are meeting in Turkey. As Reuters puts it, “China's market turmoil is likely to be the biggest problem they do nothing about.” The IMF warned Wednesday that Chinese stocks’ wild mood swings and the volatility it brings to global markets is endangering worldwide growth, weighing down on emerging market currencies and commodity prices. Japan’s finance minister called for a “frank debate” on China’s economic policy, but that’s rarely what happens at G20 meetings.

Brazil’s own finance minister, the influential Joaquim Levy, canceled his travel plans to Turkey for a minute, which spurred rumors he was about to resign and rocked the country’s fragile markets. With an 8.8% fiscal deficit and a currency that’s dropped nearly a third of its value in the past year, Brazil might well be the center of attention at the next G20 meeting…

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Americans should feel free to drive home this Labor Day weekend. Gas is at its cheapest for the holiday in 11 years. The national average, according to the AAA, is $2.44 a gallon, down a full buck from a year ago. More than 30 million people are expected on the road.

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Anxious personalities, avert your eyes. Lloyd’s and the University of Cambridge Judge Business School collaborated on estimating the financial risks born by 301 cities around the world from 18 natural and man-made threats. (Disclaimer: this research is meant to help sell insurance.) In total, $4.56 trillion are at risk, more than 70% of that in emerging economies. The top threat is, unsurprisingly, a market crash, which accounts for nearly a quarter of potential losses. Half of the risk is from things human do to themselves or can control: market crashes, nuclear accidents, power outages and cyber attacks. These particularly affect developed economies, while emerging countries are more sensitive to natural disasters. An earthquake could for instance cost Lima, Peru $70 billion; a market crash $15 billion in New York and a drought nearly $4 billion to LA. Explore data for your city here.

Data: Lloyd’s City Risk Index, with the Centre for Risk Studies, University of Cambridge Judge School of Business

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#Stat

422

Trees per human on Earth, for a total of 3.04 trillion trees. The number of trees on our planet has halved since the advent of human civilization, a Yale study estimates.

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Every horrible thing you think about Millennials… they think them too. In a survey by the Pew Research Center, 59% of 18-34 year olds interviewed qualified their generation as “self-absorbed;” 49% opted for “wasteful” and 43% for “greedy.” The best they could come up with to describe themselves and their peers is “environmentally conscious” (40%) and “idealistic” (39%). Maybe for those reasons, they also hesitated to identify as Millennials: 60% rejected the irksome label and a third, presumably older Gen Y’ers like myself, preferred to align with Gen X.

Boomers and “Silent Generation” Americans surveyed generally thought much better of themselves than Gen X and Millennials. Since the idea that one generation is better than the next is as old as humanity, and systematically disproved by the generation after that, one must conclude that media narratives have been well assimilated even by those they seek to stereotype. Millennials, meet me at camera 3: You’re not so special. You’re not so bad either.

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Missed the last update? Then check out John C. Abell's 'Friday's Big $tar War$ Premiere, Tom Brady Can Go to Work, Where's My 2015 Raise?'

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Photo: Farmers steering tractors take part in a national demonstration  in Paris, on September 3, 2015, to protest against the falling prices that they say are endangering their livelihoods. The protest comes after months of unrest as farmers in the dairy and meat industries become increasingly desperate in the face of plummeting food prices which they blame on foreign competition, as well as supermarkets and distributors. AFP PHOTO / THOMAS SAMSON