Economy in Brief: November 2016

Prices in the energy sector remained under pressure last week. Natural gas prices declined to $2.43 per mmbtu last week, prices have fallen from $3.15 just three weeks ago, and equaled the lowest level since early June. They remained [...]

The labor market improved further during September. The total job openings rate increased to 3.7% from an unrevised to 3.6% in August. It remained down. however, from the record high of 3.9% in July. The private sector job openings [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index increased 0.9% during October to 94.9 following two months of slight decline. Optimism remained down 5.4% versus its peak in December [...]

To and fro with output gains and losses The nearly 2% step back in German output in September follows an even stronger gain of 3% in August. But that has followed a sizeable drop in July and the see-saw patterned extends farther back. [...]

Consumer credit outstanding increased $19.3 billion (6.5% y/y) during September following a $26.8 billion August rise, revised from $25.9 billion. An $18.0 billion increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

The Labor Market Conditions Index (LMCI) 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, [...]

Weakness in September German new orders fell across the board in September. Overall orders fell month-to-month by 0.6% as foreign orders fell by 0.3% and domestic orders fell by 1.1%. Year-over-year trends (see table and chart) show [...]

Nonfarm payroll employment increased 161,000 (1.7% y/y) during October following revised gains of 191,000 and 176,000 in September and August. These had been reported as 156,000 and 167,000, respectively. A 174,000 rise in employment [...]