The 2021 economic momentum may not follow into 2022

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Friday’s holiday edition of Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.</p><p>I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.</p><p>Today we lead this final 2021 review with news it may be hard to maintain the 2021 economic momentum in 2022.</p><p>But first, the US reported +256,000 more <a href="https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OPA/newsreleases/ui-claims/20212215.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>initial jobless claims</strong></a> last week, a seasonal rise. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the report is +192,000 new claims. The total number of people on these claims is now only 1.636 mln (actual) which is actually lower than before the pandemic started, in fact <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CCSA" target="_blank"><strong>the lowest since July 1973</strong></a>, a 48 year record.</p><p>That is reinforced by the <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.chaptermanager.com/chapters/b742ccc3-ff70-8eca-4cf5-ab93a6c8ab97/files/mni-chicago-press-release-dec-2021.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>December Chicago PMI</strong></a> from the American industrial heartland. It rose on the back of stocking up to get ahead of supply chain issues. Firms also said that finding new hires to fill empty positions is challenging. Among the main five indicators, Production and New Orders and were higher. Order Backlogs, Employment and Supplier Deliveries fell across the month. They also reported a small easing of cost pressure.</p><p>A combination of the Omicron pandemic spread and winter snowstorms is having a major impact on US travel arrangements, with <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/airlines-cancel-1-100-flights-thursday-as-omicron-hurts-staffing-11640888973?mod=hp_lead_pos2" target="_blank"><strong>airlines cancelling thousands of flights</strong></a> daily. A 'blizzard' of Omicron infections is expected there over the next two weeks. Perhaps the US will find it hard to maintain its economic momentum to sta