Economy in Brief: June 2011

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that layoffs during May rose a slight 1.8% m/m to 37,135, but that still was nearly the lowest level since June, 2000. The uptick in layoffs was led by the [...]

The chart shows the weakening trends in the level of the EMU MFG PMI and the UK PMI. The UK is falling off sharply over the past few months but the drop this month was the sharpest in Germany and in Ireland. The Greece, the UK and [...]

Intuit compiles data covering small business employment and the figures indicate that jobs have been improving with the economic recovery. The 0.2% m/m gain in the May Employment Index was similar to gains since last Fall. The gains [...]

These are confusing times for energy prices -- gasoline is down with the weak economy and less driving, but crude oil and natural gas are up. Last week, the pump price for regular gasoline fell to $3.79 per gallon though it remained [...]

In its latest National Employment Report, the payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and economic consultants Macroeconomic Advisers, indicated that the May level of private nonfarm payrolls rose just 38,000 after a 177,000 [...]