Average Duration of Unemployment

June 5 2025 The average duration of unemployment 1.6 weeks in May to 26.0 weeks after having declined 0.9 week in April.   That works out to an average duration of unemployment of six months. It appears that unemployed workers are having a somewhat more difficult time...

Nonfarm Productivity

June 4, 2026 Non-farm productivity rose0.3% in the first quarter after climbing 1.6% in the fourth quarter and 5.2% in the third quarter   First quarter growth rate consisted of a 1.0% increase in output combined with a 0.7% increase in hours worked. Hence, a 0.3%...

Unit Labor Costs

June 4, 2026 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...

Hourly Compensation

June 4 2026 The Bureau of Labor Statistics  indicated that hourly compensation rose 2.1% in the first quarter after climbing 3.7% in the fourth quarter and 3.0% in the third quarter  In the past year compensation has risen 3.3%. Growth in hourly compensation is a good...

Initial Unemployment Claims

June 4, 2026 Initial unemployment claims rose by 13 thousand to 225 thousand in the week ending May 30 after having risen 2 thousand in the previous week. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits fell 8 thousand in the week ending May 23 to 1,777 thousand...

Car and Truck Sales

June 2, 2026 Unit car and truck sales climbed by 0.4% in May to a 16.1 million pace after declining 1.0% in April. Car sales bounce around a lot from month to month.  There is a sense that the pace of consumer spending has been slowing down which is true, but only...