Economy in Brief

The job openings rate during November increased to 3.4% and matched the highest level since April 2001. The job openings rate is the number of job openings on the last business day of the month as a percent of total employment plus [...]

The euro area seemed to show some signs of improved life in November. Italy, reporting its IP later than most EMU members, has joined the party. Still, Italian production trends remain weak. The chart shows year-over-year trends for [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index for December jumped to 100.4 following an unrevised gain to 98.1 during November. The latest level was the highest since October 2006. For [...]

Petroleum prices can't find support. Average gasoline prices declined 7 cents in the week ended January 12 to $2.14 per gallon. Prices have fallen more than one-third during the last year and by nearly one-half since their June high [...]

The main message from the OECD LEIs in November is that not much is changing. The indicators for the OECD region, the U.S., the U.K., the EMU and China are little-changed and clustered around the neutral reading of 100. Japan and [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level during November jumped 0.8% following a 0.6% October rise, earlier reported as 0.4%. Durable goods inventories led the gain with a 0.8% increase (7.1% y/y). It reflected a 2.6% rise (15.1% y/y) in [...]

Of the eight early reporting EMU nations, three show output drops in November with Finland's output flat. However, over three months, there is still solid to strong output gains from this group of countries. Industrial output in the [...]

The job market remains firm. Nonfarm payroll jobs grew 2.527 million (1.9%) last year, the strongest increase since 2000. Moreover, the 252,000 rise during December (2.1% y/y) followed upwardly revised gains of 353,000 and 261,000 [...]