Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

The recent release of the jobs report fueled fears the U.S. economy may be heading for a recession.

After the numbers came out, President Bush gathered his economic advisers together to figure out what to say to the American public about what it all means.

The Department of Labor report itself revealed an increase of unemployment to 5 percent, up from the 4.7 percent represented in the last report. Another unfavorable statistic was there were only 18,000 jobs added to the ecnonomy, the lowest amount in four years.

When you add the breaking of the $100-a-barrel for oil last week, along with the continuing problems related to housing, credit and the weak U.S. dollar, it's unsure how consumers are going to respond. They've been tremendously resilient so far, but many are wondering how long that will last.

For business leaders and managers, this is really what is at issue. Consumers are still the key to the economy, and their psychology will be very important to what happens ahead.

While they've shrugged off a lot of bad news over the last couple years, the question is whether they'll continue to do so.

Reports that holiday sales weren't very strong for a number of retailers could be the beginning of a slowdown, but we'll have to wait to get the overall picture before knowing for sure.

The jobs news has to be taken with the idea that the expected major job losses continue to occur in the manufacturing and construction sector. The reason the news is troubling is the losses were worst than expected. Other sectors in general continue on as they were.

President Bush in the meantime assures us that the economy is still on solid ground as well.

While that may be reassuring to some, the bottom line will be whether consumers continue to spend or not. With that accounting for about two-thirds of the gross domestic product, they're really the most important indicator of all statistics put forth. That's really what we need to watch more than all other factors being considered.