Economy in Brief

• Factory sector jobs improve but construction jobs fall. • Average hourly earnings are unexpectedly strong. • Unemployment rate moves sharply lower. As more individuals receive the COVID-19 vaccination and restrictions on businesses [...]

• April retreat less than half March gains. • April shipments added to March surge. • Order backlogs and inventories continued to rise. New orders for manufactured goods fell 0.6% m/m (+34.1% y/y) in April following an upwardly [...]

• Factory sector jobs improve but construction jobs fall. • Average hourly earnings are unexpectedly strong. • Unemployment rate moves sharply lower. As more individuals receive the COVID-19 vaccination and restrictions on businesses [...]

The weighted global manufacturing PMI from JPMorgan (see Global Mfg, at the table bottom) shows a tick up to 56.0 in May from 55.9 in June. The unweighted raw count of countries in the table with manufacturing sectors improving month- [...]

• Improvement is unexpectedly strong. • Business activity improves but employment reading falters. • Pricing power builds to near-record level. Service sector activity improved last month along with the factory sector, as reported [...]

• Initial state claims down another 20,000. • Continuing state claims edge upward, but maintain recent pandemic low range. • PUA claims lowest since very first week of program in April 2020. Initial claims for unemployment insurance [...]

• Upward revisions in output and compensation. • Unit labor costs are revised up sharply. • Continued surge in compensation per hour. The first revision of nonfarm business sector productivity kept the Q1 rise unchanged at 5.4% (SAAR, [...]

• Surprisingly strong increase is fifth consecutive rise. • Improvement is widespread amongst company size. • Industry improvement is widespread. The job market continued to improve last month. The ADP National Employment Report [...]