Unemployment Rate Jumps: What it Means For Consumers

Non farm payrolls added a paltry 18,000 jobs last month.  The unemployment rate kicked up to 5% from 4.7.  The jobs number will be different when it's revised next month - November's revision added 21,000 to that month's jobs number.  But today's unemployment rate and anemic jobs report will add fuel to the speculative fire.  The R word will be tossed about a lot today (recession), and most will predict the Fed will continue to trim rates, whether by quarter point chunks, or fifty basis points at the next meeting.  The upside should be lower credit card, car loan and home equity rates (banks usually pass along the Fed cuts quarter point by quarter point, half by half, and so on), and home mortgage rates should tilt down slightly as well, as the bond market (best indicator of mortgage rates) reacts to the bad news today.  So if you still have your job, you'll have more money in your pocket soon (if you have credit card debt or a home equity line of credit).  Oil and gas pump prices may fall as well, if the market is predicting a softer economy.