Economy in Brief: October 2012

Labor market improvement is continuing. Nonfarm payrolls grew 114,000 during September following revised gains of 142,000 and 181,000 during the prior two months, earlier reported as 96,000 and 141,000, respectively. A 120,000 [...]

Labor market improvement is continuing. Nonfarm payrolls grew 114,000 during September following revised gains of 142,000 and 181,000 during the prior two months, earlier reported as 96,000 and 141,000, respectively. A 120,000 [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that 33,816 job cuts were announced during September, up 4.9% from August but down by nearly three-quarters versus September 2011. Job cut announcements rose in the [...]

Factory sector new orders collapsed 5.2% during August following an upwardly revised 2.6% July gain. Expectations were for a 5.0% drop according to Bloomberg. Durable goods orders fell an unrevised 13.2%, due to cancelled aircraft [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance rose to 367,000 during the week ended September 29 versus a revised 363,000 during the prior week, initially reported as 359,000. Consensus expectations were for 370,000. The four-week moving [...]

Maybe 3.0% was some kind of threshold, but mortgage refinancings jumped as the rate on fixed rate, 15-year loans fell below it. The Mortgage Bankers Association index of total mortgage applications gained 16.6% last week (38.8% y/y) [...]

The Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) jumped to 55.1 last month from an unrevised 53.7 during August. The latest was the highest level since March and easily beat [...]

Employment growth remained moderate last month. September private sector payrolls rose 162,000 (2.0% y/y) as reported by the payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and economic consultants Macroeconomic Advisers. The rise [...]