Economy in Brief

It could be worse, and maybe it will become so. But for now the OECD area is simply showing a slowing that is very widespread. But in the aftermath of this weekend's failed IMF meeting the global trade tensions have not been mended [...]

Japan's recovery from its recession seems to progress from end 2008 according to the Economy Watcher's index. Since then index appears to have made a 'bunny-hop' recovery with its current phase being the down portion of the second [...]

Job creation in the overall U.S. job market has yet to amount to much. Private sector nonfarm payrolls rose just 64,000 last month following increases of 93,000 and 117,000 during August and July, respectively. These gains continue to [...]

Counter to most other indications of increasing labor market slack, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in this JOLTS survey that labor market conditions continued an earlier improvement. The Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey [...]

Consumers remain on their quest to reduce debt levels. The Federal Reserve reported that consumer credit outstanding fell $3.3B during August following declines during the prior six months. Coupled with larger drops late last year, [...]

German IP rebounds but slows - The German industrial production index rose strongly in August after a modest rise in July and a drop in June. As a result of that pattern IP is in a bit of a slowdown mode in terms of its sequential [...]

Today came the indication that initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 11,000 to 445,000 in early October and reversed most of the prior week's gain. The latest was the lowest since the second week of July and the 4-week moving [...]

Intuit compiles data covering small businesses and employment conditions are moderately improved from last year. The 0.1% September rise from August in Intuit's Employment Index added to 0.2% increases during each of the prior five [...]