Economy in Brief: April 2015

Chicago purchasing managers reported that their April Business Barometer Index increased to 52.3, a three-month high, following an unrevised rise to 46.3 in March. The reading exceeded expectations for 49.0 in the Action Economics [...]

The labor market continues to improve as evidenced by the downward trend in initial unemployment insurance claims. In the week ended April 25, they hit the lowest level since April 2000. Initial claims declined to 262,000 (-22.3% y/y) [...]

The employment cost index for private industry workers rose 0.7% (2.8% y/y) in Q1'15, following a 0.5% Q4 rise, revised from 0.6%. The Q1 number was stronger than expectations for a 0.5% rise, according to the Action Economics [...]

Personal consumption expenditures increased 0.4% (3.0% y/y) during March following a 0.2% February gain, revised from 0.1%. The rise matched expectations in the Consensus Economics Forecast Survey. Adjusted for price inflation, [...]

Unemployment rates in Europe were largely unchanged in March. The EU and EMU regions both showed no change in their region-wide unemployment gauges. Under the surface, huge differences among national rates of unemployment, of course, [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed indicated that the recent slowdown in economic growth was related to "transitory" factors. Also noted was that labor markets remained "underutilized." It continued to [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of single-family homes increased 1.1% during March following a 3.6% February jump, last month reported as 3.1%. Expectations were for a 1.0% increase according to [...]

While sentiment in the EU area advanced again in April, in the EMU there was a setback. Of the 16 reporters, six showed declines in their overall sentiment indices as the overall EMU index fell by 0.2%. Eight of these member countries [...]