Tag Archives: Payrolls

Consumer spending fell $20.2 billion in October as personal income remained relatively flat, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported Friday. The October report marked the first time since June in which income growth--however modest--exceeded spending. Still, income growth was the weakest it has been since last November, when it fell $31.1 billion in one month--a decline that was completely reversed one month later.

First time claims for unemployment insurance fell 23,000 to 393,000 for the week ended November 224, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week’s report was revised upward to 416,000 from the originally reported 410,000. Continuing claims--reported on a one-week lag--fell 70,000 to 3,287,000.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance fell 8,000 to 363,000 for the week ending November 3, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected 370,000 initial claim filings. It was the third straight weekly decline and the fifth drop in the last seven weeks.

The nation's economy generally expanded modestly from mid-August until the end of September, the Federal Reserve said in its periodic Beige Book report issued Wednesday. The report, the last Beige Book to be issued prior to Election Day, painted a mixed regional picture, with a leveling off of economic activity in New York and a slowing in the pace of growth in Kansas City. Residential real estate proved to be a bright spot amid an otherwise pedestrian report.

Debating continued two days after Barack Obama and Mitt Romney met in Denver, not between the candidates but over the monthly Employment Situation report showing the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent, the first sub-8.0 percent unemployment rate since January 2009.

The number of markets listed on the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and First American Title's Improving Markets Index (IMI) broke the triple-digit mark in October, NAHB reported. The index identifies metro areas that have shown improvement from their respective troughs in housing permits, employment, and house prices for at least six straight months. A total of 103 housing markets across the country qualified for the list in October, up from 99 in September and the highest level since the list started a year ago, NAHB said.

The nation's unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in September–the lowest level since January 2009—as the economy added a below-average 114,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)reported Friday. The 0.3 percentage point improvement in the unemployment rate is the largest since January 2011, when the unemployment rate dropped from 9.4 percent to 9.1 percent.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance edged up by 4,000 to 367,000 for the week ended September 29, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week's report was revised upward to 363,000 first-time claims from the originally reported 359,000.

When the September employment situation report is released Friday, one number will loom large, and it won't be the number of new payroll jobs, expected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg to be about 113,000, and it won't be the unemployment rate, expected to be 8.1 percent. Instead, it will be 386,000, which is the number of jobs added to the nation's payrolls, not by employers, but by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its annual ""benchmarking"" of payroll data.

The company released an examination of the Badger State’s economy as part of its ongoing series on swing states in the 2012 election. Whereas states like Colorado and New Hampshire have fair-to-middling economic pictures, IHS called Wisconsin’s employment situation in 2012 ""grim.""