Radio and TV stocks are falling along with the broader market after the government’s monthly jobs report, issued Friday morning, came in below expectations. Every component stock in the RBR Radio Index and TVBR Television Index was down at midday.
The US Labor Department reported that 431,000 jobs were created in May, well below the expectations of private economists. Not only that, 411,000 of those new jobs were from hiring by the US Census, so the non-Census job creation was a dismal 20,000 new positions.
The official US unemployment rate actually fell to 9.7% from the previous month’s 9.9%. But again, that was due to the Census hiring and from people who had given up on finding jobs.
But while all broadcasting stocks were lower, none of the percentage gains were into double digits. Among the worst performers in early trading Friday, Belo was down over 4%. Sinclair, SBS, Gannett and Journal were all down more than 3%.
