Economy in Brief: January 2013

The National Federation of Independent Business indicated that its December index of Small Business Optimism held near its lowest level of the economic recovery. The figure ticked up to 88.0 following its unrevised November plunge to [...]

Canada's Purchasing Managers became a bit more optimistic at year end with the Ivey PMI rising from 47.5% in November to 52.8% in December. The improvement in their outlook was due largely to the expectation that inventories would be [...]

Canada's Purchasing Managers became a bit more optimistic at year end with the Ivey PMI rising from 47.5% in November to 52.8% in December. The improvement in their outlook was due largely to the expectation that inventories would be [...]

Participation rates in the labor force have been declining for decades. Friday's household employment report, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, indicated that they reached new lows. December's 63.6% participation rate, which is the [...]

After their surge in November, unit sales of light motor vehicles eased 1.0% in December to 15.37M (SAAR, and 12.9% above December 2011) according to Autodata Corporation. The latest figure surpassed the Bloomberg survey consensus [...]

The Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) improved to 56.1 last month from an unrevised 54.7 during November. The figure compared to Consensus expectations for a slip [...]

Labor market improvement during 2012 is evidenced in most employment measures. For all of last year, nonfarm payrolls grew 1.4% and added to their 1.2% rise in 2011. Regrettably, however, these gains pale in comparison to the 4.0% or [...]

The number of layoffs fell for the holidays. The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that 32,556 job cuts were announced during December. The latest level was nearly the lowest for the economic recovery and [...]