Economy in Brief: 2012

Last quarter, labor productivity posted an outright decline of 0.5% (AR) after having weakened considerably during all of last year. The Q1 figure matched expectations. The decline followed last year's notable deterioration in growth [...]

The EMU regions continue to give back ground as the April indices have settled into their final values with declines across the board in April with the minor exception of France. The EMU index may not seem to be so low as it is only [...]

Orders in the manufacturing sector dropped an expected 1.5% (+3.3% y/y) during March and reversed a little-revised 1.1% February jump. The decline reflected a 4.0% slump in orders for durable goods. That was little-changed from the [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its index of total mortgage applications nudged up 0.1% w/w to 698.2 (52.2% y/y). That left the average level in April down 0.9% from March and down 10.9% from the February high. [...]

Job growth hit a soft-spot last month. Private sector payrolls rose 119,000 as reported by the payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and economic consultants Macroeconomic Advisers. A 180,000 gain had been expected. The [...]

Sales of light motor vehicles during April remained near the four-year high. Unit vehicle sales edged up 0.3% m/m to 14.42M (AR), according to Autodata Corporation. That sales rate was 9.5% higher than last April and remained nearly [...]

Estimates of manufacturing activity in April by purchasing managers in the United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom were released today. The majority of those in the United States and Canada were increasingly optimistic. [...]

The value of construction put-in-place ticked 0.1% higher during March following a 1.4% February decline, initially reported as -1.1%. Consensus expectations had been for a 0.4% rise. Private sector spending increased 0.7% (11.5% y/y) [...]