Economy in Brief

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the October job openings rate held m/m at 2.8%. That nevertheless was up from 2.6% twelve months earlier The job openings rate is the [...]

Industrial production in the euro zone may have hit a bit of a rocky start in October as five of the nine early-reporting EMU countries show drops in industrial production in October. Of these only Germany shows back-to-back drops in [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline prices held at $3.27 (-2.4% y/y) last week. Still, prices were down 13.5% versus the $3.78 per gallon peak reached late in February. Much of the decline reflects less driving this time of [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index rose to 92.5 during November. That recouped, however, just a piece of its sharp October decline to an unrevised 91.6. The latest figure [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index rose to 92.5 during November. That recouped, however, just a piece of its sharp October decline to an unrevised 91.6. The latest figure [...]

Federal Reserve financial accounts data (formerly known as the "flow of funds") for Q3 show the net volume of credit market borrowing at a $1.57 trillion annual rate, moderately larger than the $1.48 trillion in Q2. Q2 is mildly [...]

German industrial production fell by 1.2% in October, marking the second monthly drop in a row. In September IP dropped by 0.7%. German industrial output is now falling at a 1.5% annual rate over three months, faster than its 1.3% [...]

The National Association for Business Economics held the median estimate for real GDP growth fairly constant at 2.8% for 2014 versus the 2.9% forecast in its May survey. That follows a lowered 1.6% growth projection for this year. [...]