Economy in Brief: 2013

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its July Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the job openings rate eased in July to 2.6% from 2.8% in June, which was unrevised. The job openings rate is the number of job [...]

Despite numerous upbeat reports including the Markit purchasing manager surveys and leading indicators from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) many countries of the European Monetary Union are backsliding [...]

Consumers increased their credit outstanding by $10.4 billion in July, yielding growth of 5.9% year-on-year. This is modestly less than the $12.5 billion expected in the Action Economics consensus survey and less than the $11.9 [...]

German IP fell by 1.7% in July after rising by 2% in June. Until June, German seemed to be building momentum in its industrial sector. PMI data are still relatively upbeat. But with the release of the July German IP report, the trend [...]

The labor market continues to firm, but its rate of improvement has toned down of late. Nonfarm payrolls rose 169,000 (1.6% y/y) during August following downwardly revised increases of 104,000 and 172,000 in the prior two months. A [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that 50,462 job cuts (56.5% y/y) were announced during August, the highest level in six months. Job cuts surged in the industrial goods, computer, electronics, energy, [...]

The month-to-month drop in German orders in July of 2.7% is a bit of a tempest in a teapot. The decline comes after an outsized 5% jump in June. The three-month growth rate for orders is still a very robust 6.7% at an annual rate. [...]

Activity in the nonmanufacturing sector really heated up last month. The Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) surged to 58.6 during August from 56.0 in July. The [...]