Economy in Brief

The labor market strengthened as the new year began. Nonfarm payroll employment during January increased 225,000 (1.5% y/y) after rising 147,000 in December, revised from 145,000. November employment rose 261,000, revised from [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance declined 7,000 to 216,000 during the week ended January 25.. Continuing claims for unemployment insurance in the week ended January 18 declined 44,000 to 1.703 million...... Data on weekly [...]

Germany's orders fell yet again in December and even faster than in November. The drop – the severe drop- was not expected. And this is only December. Germany has yet to post results for the period when the coronavirus took hold in [...]

Productivity in the nonfarm business sector during Q4'19 increased 1.4% (SAAR) following an unrevised 0.2% Q3 slip. The gain matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. It raised productivity by 1.8% during the last [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 15,000 to 202,000 (-11.8% y/y) during the week ended February 1 from 217,000 in the prior week, revised from 216,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 215,000 initial claims. [...]

Among the 23 PMI readings in January, only four are below 50 and only eight show month-to-month deceleration. (This count excludes the first three regions at the top where timely January readings are not available and December values [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its Mortgage Loan Index increased 5.0% during the week of January 31 and built on a 7.2% gain in the prior week. Applications to refinance a loan jumped 15.3% (182.5% y/y) and built on [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services declined to $43.09 billion during November..... The international trade data, including relevant data on oil prices, can be found in Haver's USECON database. Detailed figures on [...]