The Effect Of US Job Losses On Crude Oil

There was a shock increase in the amount of jobs lost in December 2009 in the United States. This has prompted speculation that the expected economic recovery and increased demand for oil will not be as quick as first thought. With the loss of 85,000 jobs last month, crude oil fell by almost one percent. But futures rose to the highest level for almost fourteen months due to the continued cold weather and crude oil reserves rose too.

The expected recovery of the United States economy is now not looking as positive as before with the release of these figures. Many now fear that payroll figures may take a long time to recover. Because of this, the crude oil reserves have increased with the dip in consumer confidence. There were 1.33 million extra barrels of crude oil in the inventories last week and the amount of gasoline barrels was up by 3.74 million barrels.

There is some speculation though that the inventories will rise again next week and this may result in a fall in crude oil. It is expected that the price will go down with the increase of supplies on hand. The cost of oil should fall if there is more supply than demand just as if the demand becomes greater than the supply, then the price usually rises quite sharply. But this could all change so it is vital that we just ride it out. The only thing that we can be sure of is that there has definitely been a spoke in the works regarding the speed with which we can expect the American economy to recover especially with the news of those job losses in December.

There must be hope however, that things will start to improve with the American economy and that the rest of the world can follow suit. But demand for oil will have to increase for us to start to hope for signs of improvement.

Heating ones home in the cold months of winter can cost a fair packet. Gas and electricity are very expensive today, with no signs of prices coming down. Many individuals are now changing over to cheaper home heating oil though. When they do they always need their tanks filled with Boilerjuice to make sure they don’t run dry in the cold weather.