Economy in Brief

Nonfarm payrolls increased 244,000 last month after a 221,000 March gain, initially reported as 216,000. The February rise also was revised up to 235,000 from 194,000. The latest gain exceeded Consensus expectations for a 185,000 [...]

The Monster Index rose 6.6% m/m during April following similar, strong gains during the prior two months. The increase raised the latest level 9.0% versus last year and 18.9% from its recent trough. Industry improvement has been [...]

Has the slippage down that famous slippery slope begun for German orders? Orders plummeted by 4% in March. But they have risen by 3.1% in January and by 1.9% in February and so they remain higher for the quarter on balance. Still the [...]

The current economic slowdown is taking a toll on worker productivity. Labor productivity in the nonfarm business sector rose 1.6% last quarter, the slowest gain since Q2'10. Productivity is calculated by dividing an index of real [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance jumped last week to 474,000 from 431,000 during the prior period, initially reported as 429,000. By far, the latest figure exceeded Consensus expectations for 410,000 claims and was the highest [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that layoffs during April fell back to 36,490, nearly the lowest level since June, 2000. The decline in layoffs was led by the government, legal, media, electronics, [...]

Growth in U.S. nonmanufacturing activity continued to slow last month. The April Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) fell to 52.8 from 57.3 in March. The latest was [...]

The EMU services sector took a step back in April and sets up just below its standing in February. The service sector in France is still pushing ahead for improvement; Spain's index while still below its February standing rose in [...]