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- US: New Residential Construction (Dec)
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Economy in Brief
Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index Jumps in January
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Factory Sector Business Conditions Index jumped to January to 26.5...
U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Ease, but Are Still High
Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 900,000 in the week ended January 16...
U.S. Home Builder Sentiment Slips in January
The Composite Housing Market Index from the NAHB-Wells Fargo declined 3.5% m/m (+10.7% y/y) in January...
Decline in Refinancing Drags Down U.S. Mortgage Applications
The MBA Mortgage Loan Applications Index fell 1.9% w/w (+56.2% y/y) in the weekend January 15...
Euro Area Inflation Persists in Negative Territory
Euro area inflation is negative on a year-over-year basis for five months in a row...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Charles Steindel May 17, 2019
State payrolls were, like the national figure, generally strong in April. Ten states had statistically significant gains, led in absolute numbers by California (46,000) and in percentage terms by Rhode Island (.8%) . A handful of states did report point declines; Georgia, with a somewhat startling drop of 14,900 (.3 percent) was the only one that was statistically significant. Over the last 12 months the story of good growth over most of the nation, with some tilt toward the West, continues. Nevada and Utah were the states with job growth of 3 percent or higher. Florida was the one state in the eastern half of the nation with job growth ab0ve 2.0 percent in this period. All states, and DC, report more jobs in April 2019 than in April 2018.
Unemployment rates continue to converge, at low levels, across the nation. Alaska remains the one noticeable outlier on the high side, at 6.5% (DC is at 5.6%--while DC is not, of course, a state, its labor market is a bit bigger than Alaska’s). New Mexico, was at 5.0%. West Virginia edged down to 4.9%--its first time under 5 percent since November 2008. Mississippi and Arizona were also at 4.9%. Vermont has the lowest unemployment rate—an incredible 2.2% (according to the seasonally adjusted count, that’s 7,565 people, There may not be more cows than people in Vermont, but they surely outnumber the state’s unemployed). North Dakota’s rate was 2.3%. Every other state had a rate between 2.4% and 4.7%.