Economy in Brief: 2014

The ADP/Moody's National Employment Report indicated that hiring remained in the moderate growth range of the last six months. Private sector employment improved last month to 213,000 (2.2% y/y) following a 202,000 August increase, [...]

The manufacturing PMI for the European Monetary Union edged lower to 50.3 in September from its already weak 50.7 reading in August. The September reading of 50.3 stayed just ahead of the reading of 50.0, which would indicate [...]

The Conference Board reported that their reading of consumer confidence declined to 86.0 this month (+7.2% y/y) from 93.4 during August, revised from 92.4. The latest figure was the lowest since May and fell short of expectations for [...]

Chicago purchasing managers indicated that their September Business Barometer Index fell to 60.5 this month but remained higher than the year-ago level of 56.3. The reading fell short of expectations for 62.0 in the Action Economics [...]

The cost of a gallon of regular gasoline held at $3.35 last week (-2.1% y/y), remaining the least expensive since mid-February. To account for seasonal patterns, Haver Analytics constructs factors for adjustment of pump prices. The [...]

The unemployment rate in the European Monetary Union stayed put at 11.5% in August. The unemployment rate for the broader European Union fell slightly to 10.1% in August from 10.2% in July. Unemployment remains high. As the chart [...]

Personal consumption expenditures increased 0.5% during August (4.1% y/y) following an unchanged July reading, revised from -0.1%. The rise matched the strongest gain since a 0.8% March increase. A 0.4% increase had been expected in [...]

The National Association for Business Economics has released new forecasts for U.S. real economic activity. Expectations for 3.0% real GDP growth in 2015 were little-changed but this year's advance was lessened to 2.1% due to the Q1 [...]