by sslifer | Mar 6, 2025 | NumberNomics Notes, Productivity
March 6, 2025 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...
by sslifer | Mar 6, 2025 | NumberNomics Notes, Productivity
March 6, 2025 The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that hourly compensation rose 3.8% in the fourth quarter after climbing by 1.3% in the third quarter. In the past year compensation has risen 4.0%. Growth in hourly compensation is a good thing, but that...
by sslifer | Mar 6, 2025 | Miscellaneous, NumberNomics Notes
March 6, 2025 The trade deficit widened by an astonishing $33.3 billion in January to $131.4 billion after having widened by $19.8 billion in December. Firms have been racing to import goods prior to the imposition of tariffs. Exports rose $3.3 billion or 1.2% in...
by sslifer | Mar 5, 2025 | NumberNomics Notes, Purchasing Managers Index
March 5, 2025 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 business activity index declined 0.1 point in February to 54.4 after having fallen...
by sslifer | Mar 5, 2025 | Employment, NumberNomics Notes
March 5, 2025 As shown above the ADP survey shows a respectable correlation with the private sector portion of the payroll employment data to be released a couple of days later. And well it should. ADP, or Automatic Data Processing, Inc. is a provider of...
by sslifer | Mar 4, 2025 | NumberNomics Notes, Retail Sales
March 4, 2025 Unit car and truck sales rose 3.2% in February to 15.999 thousand after having sunk 8.1% in January. The bitter cold weather throughout much of the country almost certainly played a roll in the slowdown in that month. Sales should continue to rise in...
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