by sslifer | Apr 3, 2020 | Employment, NumberNomics Notes
April 3, 2020 The unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped 0.9% in March from 3.5% to 4.4%. The labor force fell 1,633 thousand in March. Apparently, some of those workers who lost jobs gave up looking for another one because they knew it was unlikely to happen, or...
by sslifer | Apr 3, 2020 | Employment, NumberNomics Notes
April 3, 2020 In any given month employers can boost output by either additional hiring or by lengthening the number of hours that their employees work. Payroll employment for March fell 701 thousand as restaurants and bars closed, retail jobs declined, doctors and...
by sslifer | Apr 3, 2020 | Employment, NumberNomics Notes, Reference Charts (By Category)
April 3, 2020 Average hourly earnings rose 0.4% in March to $28.62 after having risen 0.3% in February, During the past year hourly earnings have risen 3.1%. The somewhat surprising increase in hourly earnings in March almost certainly reflects the fact that most...
by sslifer | Apr 3, 2020 | Employment, NumberNomics Notes
April 3, 2020 The average duration of unemployment plunged by 3.8 weeks in March from 20.9 weeks to 17.1. This is because the BLS reported that 3.5 million workers have now been unemployed “less than 5 weeks” compared to 2.0 million who were in that...
by sslifer | Apr 2, 2020 | Miscellaneous, NumberNomics Notes
April 2, 2020 The trade deficit for February narrowed $5.5 billion to $39.9 billion after having narrowed by $3.1 billion in January. The $887 billion trade deficit in goods for 2018 was a record high level. It narrowed slightly to $866 billion in 2019. Increasing...
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