Economy in Brief: May 2021

• Initial claims fall to another pandemic low. • Continuing claims rise moderately. • Insured unemployment rate holds steady. Initial claims for unemployment insurance declined in the week ending May 1 to 498,000 from 590,000 in the [...]

• Nonfarm worker productivity surges. • Compensation per hour rises in Q1’21. • Unit labor costs decline. Nonfarm business sector productivity rose 5.4% (SAAR, 4.1% y/y) during Q1’21, following a decline of 3.8% (SAAR, +2.6% y/y) in [...]

German orders surged in March rising by 3% after gaining by 1.4% in February and 0.8% in January. The surge was being pushed ahead by domestic orders that spurted by 4.9% in March after a substantial 4% boost in February, a surge that [...]

• Initial claims fall to another pandemic low. • Continuing claims rise moderately. • Insured unemployment rate holds steady. Initial claims for unemployment insurance declined in the week ending May 1 to 498,000 from 590,000 in the [...]

• Nonfarm worker productivity surges. • Compensation per hour rises in Q1'21. • Unit labor costs decline. Nonfarm business sector productivity rose 5.4% (SAAR, 4.1% y/y) during Q1'21, following a decline of 3.8% (SAAR, +2.6% y/y) in [...]

The composite PMI measures across an early-reporting group of 16 entities (15 countries and the euro area) show that most of these reporters are expanding and few of them are slowing. The average (unweighted) PMI for this group has [...]

• Components are mixed. • New orders decline, but employment increases. • Pricing improves to July 2008 high. Service sector activity weakened last month along with the factory sector, as reported Monday. The Composite Index of [...]

• Applications to purchase edge downward, those for refinancing edge upward. • Mortgage interest rates mostly up, but changes very small. The Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Loan Applications Index decreased 0.9% (-5.9% y/y) in [...]