How Much Longer Can the U.S. Labor Market Keep it Up? Hint: It's a While.

With the weak U.S. Retail Sales as the background, attention has focused again on the pillar of hope in the current U.S. economic picture - Employment.

Last week we saw U.S. employment come in with a knockout +295K.

The strength of the figure led some to question whether U.S. employment growth is peaking.  Friday’s Retail Sales figures provided no relief to such a view.

How much longer the U.S. labor market keep it up?

U.S. Labor Market: A Look at the Month-over-Month Pictures

First, some background.

Here’s a look at the month-over-month U.S. employment figures over the past few years.

In terms of recent years, the M/M U.S. employment growth figures bottomed in December 2013 at 109K.  Since bottoming, U.S. employment has consistently been gaining...