Economy in Brief: January 2019

The labor market finished 2018 on a firm footing. Nonfarm payrolls increased 312,000 (1.8% y/y) during December after a 176,000 November rise, revised from 155,000. October's gain also was revised up to 274,000 from 237,000. The [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims jumped 10,000 to 231,000 (-6.9% y/y) in the week ended December 29 versus an upwardly revised 221,000 in the previous week. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expectation was for 219,000 new [...]

The value of construction put-in-place eased 0.1% (+4.9% y/y) during October......... The construction spending figures, some of which date back to 1946 (e.g., public construction figures), are in Haver's USECON database and the [...]

The story of an ongoing slowdown for global growth is not news. It is, in fact, the baseline case for most forecasts for 2019. Most of the special-case stories in play as the New Year unfolds (or unravels as the case may be) are about [...]

The ISM composite index of business activity in the factory sector fell to 54.1 during December after rising to 59.3 in November. It was the lowest reading since November 2016. A level of 57.8 had been expected in the Action Economics [...]

ADP reported in its National Employment Report that private nonfarm payrolls increased 271,000 during December following a 157,000 November rise, revised from 179,000. It was the largest increase since February 2017. During all of [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims jumped 10,000 to 231,000 (-6.9% y/y) in the week ended December 29 versus an upwardly revised 221,000 in the previous week. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expectation was for 219,000 new [...]

Gasoline prices fell to $2.27 per gallon this past week (-10.1% y/y) from $2.32 during the prior week. Haver Analytics constructs factors to adjust for the marked seasonal variation in prices. The seasonally-adjusted gasoline price [...]