A piece of bad economic news: Industrial production dropped unexpectedly in September:
Output at factories, mines and utilities fell 0.2 percent, the first decline since the recession ended in June 2009, according to figures from the Fed today. Another report showed builders were less pessimistic than projected this month.
A new Gallup poll shows that lower- and middle-income Americans — those making less than $90,000 a year — have tightened their purse strings yet again, facing high rates of unemployment and stagnant wages. All in all, lower- and middle-income Americans cut daily spending last month $6 from August More…
Yesterday, the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee — the team of economists that determines whether the economy is contracting (in a recession) or expanding — announced that the recession officially ended in June 2009.
That means little to the 14.9 million Americans out of work, of More…
So says the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee — a group of economists charged with officially determining whether the economy is in a state of expansion or contraction:
Speaking in the Rose Garden this afternoon, President Obama asked Congressional Republicans to stop blocking measures to aid the economic recovery and lower the unemployment rate. For the past year, Republicans have repeatedly stalled or killed job-saving or job-creating measures, including ones to extend unemployment benefits, keep local government More…
Today, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the U.S. economy grew at a 1.6 percent annual pace in the second quarter. The report was a second analysis, revising the number down from an initial estimate of 2.4 percent. That is a dismally slow pace of growth, but More…
This morning, the Department of Labor announced that initial weekly jobless claims dropped from last week’s seven-month peak, which was revised upward from 500,000 to 504,000. But this week’s claims remain high at 473,000, with the four-week moving average, smoothing out one-week blips, at 486,750. Claims need to fall More…
This morning, the Department of Labor reported that weekly initial jobless claims climbed to the highest level in five months, up 2,000 to 484,000, with last week’s number revised up to 482,000. That was nearly 20,000 higher than economists expected. The four-week average, which smooths out the jumpy More…
Private employers added just 1,420 jobs per state in July — not nearly enough to make up for job losses in the government, 50,000 of which were local-government layoffs. Unemployment remains high, at 9.5 percent, and many economists expect it to track higher in the fall. Calculated Risk More…
This morning, the Department of Labor said that initial jobless claims edged up last week, from 460,000 to 479,000. Economists expected the number of claims to decrease. The weekly figure is the highest since April.
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