Economy in Brief

Labor productivity in the nonfarm business sector rose 2.6% (AR) and roughly repeated its Q3 increase. The rise exceeded Consensus expectations for a 2.0% increase. Nevertheless, y/y growth decelerated to 1.7% following its upward [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance last week fell back and retraced most of the prior week's jump. The decline to 415,000 from a revised 457,000, initially reported as 454,000, was greater than expectations for a decline to [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that the level of layoffs during January picked up slightly to 38,519. The level still was near the lowest since June 2000. Despite the decline in layoffs, the [...]

As expected, unit sales of light vehicles were roughly unchanged last month versus December at 12.62M units (SAAR). (Seasonal adjustment of these figures is provided by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.) Nevertheless, sales were [...]

The job market continued to show improvement last month. In its latest National Employment Report, the payroll processor, Automatic Data Processing (ADP), indicated that the level of private nonfarm payrolls rose another 187,000 m/m [...]

Australia, barely recovering from the floods of the last two months, is now threatened with a devastating cyclone. The effects of the flooding are only beginning to be reflected in the country's statistics. The consumer price index, [...]

There has been little progress made on reducing unemployment. Since the recession ballooned unemployment rates in the US and in Europe those rates have largely stayed there- higher. Germany has managed to reduce its rate noticeable [...]

Record cold temperatures kept builders off the job during December. The value of construction put-in-place plunged 2.5% following a downwardly revised 0.2% slip in November. The latest figure fell well short of expectations for a 0.1% [...]