Over the past few days, global stock markets have been plummeting.
Trading screens across the US, Asia and, to a certain extent, Europe are awash with blinking red numbers heading south.
The sudden turn comes as fears grow that the US economy – the world’s biggest – is slowing down.
Experts say the main reason for this fear is that US jobs data for July, released on Friday, was much worse than expected.
However, for some, talk of an economic slowdown – or even a (whisper it) recession – is a little premature.
So, what did the official figures show us? As always with economics, there is good news and bad news.
Bad news first. US employers created 114,000 jobs in July which was way below expectations of 175,000 new roles.
The rate of unemployment also rose to 4.3%, a near three-year high, which triggered something known as the “Sahm rule”.
Named after American economist Claudia Sahm, the rule says if the average unemployment rate over three…
