Economic Outlook
Regular Reporting
There is currently movement to end the quarterly reporting requirement by public firms and replace it with semi-annual reporting. It’s argued this will reduce administrative costs and discourage short-term thinking. But six months is hardly long-term, and in the UK, where firms needn’t report quarterly, the stock market is shriveling and most firms still report quarterly. The reason is more frequent reporting leads, for many reasons, to lower capital costs.
Definitely Demand
With suddenly weak job growth, there is some debate about whether this is due to a lack of demand for workers by firms or a lack of supply due to new immigration policies. Make no mistake, it’s primarily declining labor demand. Job openings, job findings, the percentage saying jobs are plentiful, and other metrics are all deteriorating. Annual wage growth is also slowing. These are all signs of softening demand.
