Economy in Brief: 2020

• Inventories increased 0.4% while sales ticked up 0.1% in September. • Wholesale inventory-to-sales ratio unchanged at 1.31. Wholesale inventories grew a greater-than-expected 0.4% in September (-3.9% year-over-year). The Informa [...]

• Private sector hiring picks up. • Earnings growth remains subdued. • Jobless rate declines to seven-month low. Nonfarm payroll employment increased 638,000 during October (-6.0% y/y) after rising 672,000 in September, revised from [...]

• State initial claims continued their downward trend. • Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance new filers rose for third week. • Continuing claims fell for state and PUA, while PEUC continues upward march. Seasonally adjusted state [...]

The Federal Reserve left the target for the Fed funds rate in a range of 0.00% to 0.25% at today's meeting of the FOMC. The Fed indicated that it is "committed to using its full range of tools to support the U.S. economy in this [...]

It has not been the best of times or the worst of times, but the German economy has been rapidly rebounding from an ugly hit to economic activity in the wake of the coronavirus shutdown and after seeing orders crater then surge, the [...]

• Growth in output per hour remained firm for second straight quarter. • Unit labor costs decline, reversing Q2 rise. Nonfarm business sector productivity increased 4.9% (SAAR) during Q3'20 following a 10.6% Q2 increase, revised from [...]

• State initial claims continued their downward trend. • Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance new filers rose for third week. • Continuing claims fell for state and PUA, while PEUC continues upward march. Seasonally adjusted state [...]

Among the eight jurisdictions listed in the table, five of them show that composite index readings eroded in October. The EMU reading fell to a dead neutral (or flat) reading of 50.0. The EMU composite has fallen off for three months [...]