Initial Unemployment Claims
December 8, 2022 Initial unemployment claims fell 16 thousand in the week ending November 26 to 225 thousand after having risen 18 thousand in the previous week. Thus far, in the face of rising interest rates and the fear of a recession, employers are reluctant to...
Nonfarm Productivity
December 7, 2022 Non-farm productivity rose 0.8% in the third quarter after having fallen 4.1% in the second quarter after having plunged by 5.9% in the first quarter. The third quarter increase consisted of a 3.3% increase in output combined with a 2.5% increase...
Unit Labor Costs
December 7, 2022 Unit labor costs might be a term that is not familiar to you. Unit labor costs represent the increase in compensation adjusted for the gains in productivity. You might think that if labor costs are rising that would put upward pressure on...
Purchasing Managers Index — Nonmanufacturing
December 5, 2022 The Institute for Supply Management not only publishes an index of manufacturing activity each month. They publish two days later a survey of service sector firms. The service sector business activity (production) index jumped 9.0 points in...
2023 Economic Outlook Conference
2023 Economic Outlook Conference SOLD OUT In times of uncertainty whether you are running a business or planning your investments, knowledge can be your most valuable asset. Stephen Slifer, Owner and Chief Economist at NumberNomics will provide...
Debt Difficulties Have Arrived – But Nobody Cares
December 2, 2022 The world is focused on the combination of GDP growth, inflation, and expected Fed action, and certainly those topics are important. But there has been little discussion of the damage done by the government’s debt explosion in the past couple of...
Car and Truck Sales
December 2, 2022 Unit car and truck sales declined 6.5% in November to 14.4 million after having jumped 10,9% in October. Car and truck sales seem to be gradually inching upwards after touching bottom in May. It appears that the supply challenges that had...
Payroll Employment
December 2, 2022 Payroll employment rose by 263 thousand in November after having risen 284 thousand in October and 269 thousand in September. In the past three months the average increase has been 272 thousand. At the beginning of this year we were routinely...
Private Employment
December 2, 2022 Private sector employment rose by 221 thousand in November after having risen 248 thousand in October and 255 thousand in September. In the past three months the average increase has been 241 thousand. At the beginning of this year we were...
Unemployment Rate
December 2, 2022 The unemployment rate was unchanged in November at 3.7% after having risen 0.2% in October . In November the labor force fell by 186 thousand. Employment declined by 138 thousand. As a result, the number of unemployed workers fell by 48...
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