Welcome to jobs week

and a uranium update

Its all about jobs data this week. Today saw the JOLTS release. That is the Job Openings and Labor Turnover report. It shows that job openings have continued to stay sky-high at 10.9 million. This means businesses continue to have openings and are looking for workers.

It also means that these businesses will need to raise wage rates to attract the best and brightest to their business. Those businesses that are in the fiercest competition are; Education and Health Services, Professional and Business Services, and Trade, Transportation and Utilities.

You can see that Leisure and Hospitality is a close 4th place. I expect that these businesses with the most openings will see the most wage growth as these businesses compete for the few job-seekers out there.

Manufacturing was a disappointment to me in this report. I’m a strong believer in the idea of bringing some manufacturing back to the US. I still believe this could become a theme in the future as businesses try to reduce risk exposure to supply chain disruptions. This report showed that this thesis is not yet in vogue as openings for manufacturing jobs are slumping back to the trend-line. It confirmed what Mish wrote earlier today that “Manufacturing Growth Slows”.

The most significant revelation from today’s report is the continued separation between the quantity of job openings available and the amount of people who are unemployed.

We have now reached a level of 4.6 million more job openings than unemployed people. This is a spectacular figure.

More jobs data is on slate to come out later in the week but we are already hearing from the administration that the number will be disappointing.

Tomorrow the ADP Employment report will be posted. Then on Thursday, we will have the jobless claims. Finally, Friday will have the unemployment rate, participation rate, and hourly earnings reports.

Uranium Update

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am a big fan of uranium. The market dynamics are aligning for a what looks to be a spectacular run. On one side of the equation there are new scientific breakthrough in everything from reactor design to accident tolerant fuel. This latest breakthrough comes as Westinghouse and Southern Nuclear begin testing a new type of fuel rod.

Westinghouse said the lead assemblies are expected to be introduced at Vogtle-2 (Georgia) in 2023.

The company previously said EnCore fuel has the potential to increase safety through the use of new materials, while improving the economics of plant operation through longer fuel burn cycles and improved flexibility.

In 2019 and 2020, EnCore test assemblies were loaded at the Byron-2 nuclear plant in Illinois and Belgium’s Doel-4 plant.

This is a major development. One of the biggest hurdles for nuclear power is its safety history. While the incidence rate is spectacularly low for the amount of power generated, those accidents that do happen become front page news. Chernobyl, Fukushima, and Three Mile Island are all brought to mind when you think of a nuclear accident. Here is Wikipedia’s list for those interested. To be able to develop a fuel that will increase safety could be the catalyst to push “green” advocates in uranium’s direction.

In addition, the battle in Europe over the future of nuclear power is continuing. The latest report is that the EU’s financial services commissioner, Mairead McGuinness, will include nuclear and gas in the European commission’s guidelines for sustainable investment. This means that nuclear and gas will be labeled as “climate friendly investments”. The battle lines have been drawn in Europe over nuclear power.

Ministers from Germany, Austria, Portugal, Denmark and Luxembourg said they are against the inclusion of nuclear in the taxonomy, with Austria saying it will go to court to prevent nuclear being part of the taxonomy rules.

Ten EU countries have spoken out in support of nuclear power, saying it is “absolutely essential” it is included in the taxonomy.

One of these ten is Hungary, whose Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto, recently opined that global climate goals are “impossible” without nuclear power.

Full Disclosure; I hold shares of UUUU

Lastly for the day, I wanted to share two links. First, I’ve joined Gettr the bettr twittr altrnative. You can follow me here: https://gettr.com/user/alanbaerlocher.

Secondly, if you enjoy my work and want to support me, I would greatly appreciate donations through my paypal account.

Thanks!