John Stumpf, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, you know, I obviously respect Dick’s view and there are different views in the economy. But that being said, and there is volatility clearly. Today look at the retail sales, probably see it differently so you can feel differently on a day to day basis. But when I look at the businesses that we’re in, and as I’m talking with customers which I am every day, and talking with our business leaders, and frankly looking at the numbers, 50 consecutive months of employment growth, unemployment in the 5.6% range, GDP 5% and we would probably have a few quarters this year that start with threes.
So I’m optimistic. I don’t think this is a breakout but I think we’re on the front foot and consumers’ confidence is at an all-time high since the downturn. So the way I read the tea leaves, I’m optimistic.
John Shrewsberry, Chief Financial Officer
I think Dick also suggests that we could have gotten here sooner. We could be at higher levels.
John Stumpf, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
And that’s fair. I would agree with that.
Nancy Bush, NAB Research
Okay. Thank you very much.
Operator
Our final question will come from the line of Marty Mosby with Vining Sparks. Please go ahead.
Marty Mosby, Vining Sparks
Hello. I would wrap it up for you. Wanted to look at the capital deployment ratios. If you look at your total payout this quarter, it’s 72%, which is, I think close to your stated target, you talked about 75%. So, the increased capital deployment from here, are you going to need to see some earnings momentum or do you think you could push past that 75% payout ratio?
John Shrewsberry, Chief Financial Officer
So our target is 55% to 75% and you saw that it bounced around during the course of the four quarters of 2014 for a few reasons. One of them is that we do more share issuance in connection with our benefit plans in the first half of the year and so it drives down the net payout ratio. But the first call on our capital is to be available to support more loan growth on behalf of our customers. So, the capital deployment horse is out in front of the net payout cart and that’s important to remember because we are not hoping that we have enough to support the business growth after we think about distribution. We’re making sure we have enough to support business growth and then we are factoring in distribution behind that. So, we anticipate continuing to operate in the range quarter by quarter, 55% to 75% and the 4th Quarter was a high take on that in the 70s.
Marty Mosby, Vining Sparks
And I was really kind of looking back towards the ‘E ‘part of that which is as earnings grow that gives you more chance. What kind of catalyst do you see while we’re waiting on interest rates to create some incremental earnings momentum reigniting that that we’ve seen slowdown over the last couple of quarters?
John Shrewsberry, Chief Financial Officer
Sure, it’s loan growth for sure. It’s redeployment of excess liquidity and do higher yielding earnings assets. It will be what the impact is on expenses that we’ve been talking a lot a little bit before, if we do as expected there. Then it’s the various sources of fee revenue which reflect quarter to quarter up year over year but there’s a lot of momentum in places like cards, places like investment banking, trust and an investment fees overall, we just talked about the slightly more bullish case for mortgage this year. All of those are catalyst for growth.
Marty Mosby, Vining Sparks
Thanks.
John Stumpf, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you and thanks everybody who joined us today, and again, happy new year to everybody. Thanks for your interest in Wells Fargo. See you the next quarter.
Operator:
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s conference. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.
