Economy in Brief: 2016

The Labor Market Conditions Index from the Federal Reserve Board includes 19 indicators of labor market activity, covering the broad categories of unemployment and underemployment. These include jobs, workweeks, wages, vacancies, [...]

The Bank of France business indicator is flat in June, hovering just outside the lower one-third ranking in its historic queue of data. Expected production is back up in June after posting a negative survey value in May and sits in [...]

Consumer credit outstanding increased $18.6 billion during May following an unrevised $13.4 billion April gain. A $15.2 billion increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During the last ten years, there has [...]

Nonfarm payrolls grew 287,000 during June, a figure boosted as roughly 35,000 Verizon workers returned from strike. Employment increased 11,000 in May, revised from 38,000 and April's gain was revised to 144,000 from 123,000. [...]

Germany's trade surplus contracted slightly in May, but the surplus remains huge. German exports fell by 1.8%, marking their largest drop in nine months. German imports ticked higher by only 0.1% in May after a 0.3% decline in April. [...]

Nonfarm payrolls grew 287,000 during June, a figure boosted as roughly 35,000 Verizon workers returned from strike. Employment increased 11,000 in May, revised from 38,000 and April's gain was revised to 144,000 from 123,000. [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that job cut announcements during June rose to 38,536 (-14.1% y/y) following May's sharp decline to 30,157. Layoffs increased in the aerospace/defense, automotive, [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance claims declined 16,000 to 254,000 (-12.0% y/y) during the week ended July 2 from 270,000 in the prior week, revised from 268,000. It was the lowest level since mid-April. The Action Economics [...]