Nonfarm Workweek

May 2, 2025 In any given month employers can boost output by either additional hiring workers or by lengthening the number of  hours that their employees work.  Payroll employment climbed by 177 thousand in April  In the past three months the average increase has been...

Average Hourly Earnings

May 2, 2025 Average  hourly earnings rose 0.2% in April to $36.06 after having risen 0.3% in March.  Earnings growth  in the past year has been 3.8%. While nominal earnings have risen 3.8% in the past year, inflation has risen fairly quickly and real or...

Average Duration of Unemployment

May 2, 2025 The average duration of unemployment rose 0.4 week in April to 23.2 weeks after 1.5 weeks in March,  It appears that unemployed workers are having a somewhat more difficult time becoming reemployed than they were six months or so ago. Stephen Slifer...

Construction Spending

May 1, 2025 Construction spending (the green bars above) fell 0.5% in March after rising 0.6% in February.  This indicator has been essentially flat since the end of last year..  In the past 12 months it has risen 2.8%. Private construction spending (excluding the...

Initial Unemployment Claims

May 1, 2025 Initial unemployment claims rose 18  thousand in the week ending April 26 to 241 thousand after climbing 7 thousand in the previous week.    There is no evidence that the labor market has been affected by layoffs thus far.  However, we know that some...