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Weekly Market Note
Week of May 4–8, 2026
This week’s round-up of economic releases and market insights.
In summary
- Nonfarm Payrolls posted another solid month at +115k while March was revised higher. The underlying data softened somewhat, but the labor market appears to be on solid footing.
- Q1 2026 Productivity posted a solid +2.9% Y/Y gain — the biggest since Q3 2024 — as Unit Labor Costs slowed to +2.3% Q/Q, a good development for inflation.
- Job-cut announcements rose to 83,387 as cuts continue to outpace hires by around 240k year-to-date.
- March JOLTS showed ongoing stability in the labor market, providing a different dataset from the payrolls report.
- Michigan Sentiment fell to new lows in the preliminary May reading, while Expectations actually ticked up — perhaps a sign people are hoping things improve.