Economy in Brief: November 2011

Worker productivity grew at the fastest rate last quarter since Q1'10. The 3.1% gain followed two quarterly declines. Nevertheless, the y/y increase held low at 1.1%, about where it's been all year. That compares to 4.1% growth during [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance slipped to 397,000 last week from 406,000 (revised from 402,000) during the week prior. The latest figure compared to the 400,000 expected figure in the Action Economics survey. The 4-week moving [...]

Industrial commodity prices weakened broadly with recent evidence of a lethargic economy. At 161.7, the latest price index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER), which covers industrial materials [...]

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that job cut announcements during October totaled just 42,759 following the September surge of 115,730. The latest figure was the lowest since June. The lessened rise in [...]

The labor market continues on the mend, just not too quickly. According to the payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and economic consultants Macroeconomic Advisers, private nonfarm payrolls grew 110,000 (0.1%) during [...]

New model offerings by vehicle manufacturers helped spur sales last month. Unit sales of light vehicles during October rose an expected, according to Bloomberg, 1.2% from September to 13.26M units (SAAR) after an 8.0% September jump. [...]

The British Office for National Statistics (ONS) released its first estimate of third quarter real GDP today. Total GDP is estimated to have increased 0.5% from the second quarter, as shown in the first chart. Production rose 0.5% [...]

Construction spending during September ticked up an expected 0.2% following a little-revised 1.6% August increase. However, the decline in July was revised deeper to -3.3% from -1.4%. Therefore, the y/y comparison remained negative [...]