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Economy in Brief
U.S. Leading Indicators Rebounded in March
The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators rebounded in March, rising 1.3% m/m (+7.9% y/y)...
Chicago Fed National Activity Index Increases in March
The Chicago Fed's National Activity Index increased to 1.71 during March...
Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Activity Strengthens in April
The Kansas City Fed reported that its manufacturing sector business activity index rose to a record 31 in April...
U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Fall Again to a New Pandemic-Period Low
Initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased again in the week ending April 17, reaching 547,000...
U.K. CBI Optimism Speaks Volumes
The U.K. CBI survey saw its order component backtrack in April...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Charles Steindel March 16, 2020
In what now seems like ancient times, state labor market data was strong in January. Twelve states had statistically significant increases in payrolls over the month, led by a 35,700 gain in Florida and 33,500 in New York. Some other Northeastern states, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New Jersey saw percentage point gains as comparable or larger than New York’s .3 percent (New Hampshire was up .7 percent) strongly suggesting that the remarkably mild winter boosted the numbers. Over the 12 months ending in January job growth was, as has been the case for some time, strongest in most of the belt of states from Washington to Texas, and generally weaker in states along the Mississippi River and its tributaries (along with Alaska and Vermont), with a number reporting statistically insignificant drops.
In the household survey, Alaska had yet again the highest unemployment rate, at 6%, while Mississippi stood at 5.5%, Louisiana at 5.3%, DC 5.2% and West Virginia. Among larger states, Pennsylvania’s 4.7% was highest. North Dakota’s 2.3% was the lowest in the nation, and Vermont and South Carolina reported 2.4% rates.
Once again, these are January numbers (they incorporate the annual benchmark and seasonal revisions). Like the soon to be released February figures, they are rather moot at this juncture.