Economy in Brief: 2009

Initial claims for unemployment insurance indicate that the labor market improved just modestly. For last week, the Labor Department indicated that claims fell a scant 4,000 to 570,000. Though the decline was the second in a row, the [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance indicate that the labor market improved just modestly. For last week, the Labor Department indicated that claims fell a scant 4,000 to 570,000. Though the decline was the second in a row, the [...]

Inventories still are being shed, but at a somewhat slower rate. That is a part of the recent improvement in the level of factory sector output. Manufactures' inventories during July fell 0.7% after a June decline that was revised [...]

Revisions to the figures on 2Q worker productivity were small and as a result cost pressures continue to show a sharp easing. Labor productivity growth in the nonfarm business sector was revised up slightly to 6.6% (AR) from the [...]

German retail sales edged higher in July but this is after several months of declining. Despite the minor rise in sales ex-autos, retail sales in Q3 (one month into the new quarter) are dropping at an annual rate of 5.7% or 2.7% in [...]

It's part of a slowly developing trend, but the rate of job loss moderated again last month. The latest report from the payroll processor ADP, in their National Employment Report, indicated that private nonfarm payrolls fell 298,000 [...]

The U.S. government's "Cash for Clunkers" (CARS) program was in full force during the final three weeks of last month. The program gave car buyers up to $4,500 for trading in older, gas-guzzling vehicles if they bought more fuel [...]

The U.S. government's "Cash for Clunkers" (CARS) program was in full force during the final three weeks of last month. The program gave car buyers up to $4,500 for trading in older, gas-guzzling vehicles if they bought more fuel [...]