Economy in Brief: July 2016

The job openings rate declined to 3.7% during May from the record high of 3.9%. The private sector job openings rate fell to 3.9% from 4.2%. This rate compared to 2.4% in the public sector. The 4.8% rate in professional & business [...]

Rising inflation in Germany with still-weak conditions in the rest of the euro area is a prescription for more intense euro area conflict. And that may be what is now in train. Germany in June posted its second monthly HICP hike in a [...]

Regular gasoline prices fell to $2.25 per gallon last week (-20.5% y/y), down from $2.40 early last month, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Nevertheless, prices remained near the highest level since early September. Prices [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index increased 0.7% during June to 94.5 following an unrevised 0.2% May rise. An improved -9% of firms were expecting the economy to improve, [...]

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. [...]