The forecast calls for steady gains in employment from now through 2017 and estimates total employment will grow at a rate of 2.4 percent this year, 2.2 percent next year and 1.5 percent in 2017. Payrolls are also expected to grow at about the same rate over the next three years.
Revenue at health-care and social-assistance companies climbed 4.2% in the fourth quarter from the prior three months, up sharply from the third quarter’s 0.3% growth, the Commerce Department said Wednesday in its Quarterly Services Survey. The data weren’t adjusted for seasonal variations or price changes.
In the years ahead we can expect these trends to continue, or even accelerate. There is little reason to believe that states like California or New York are going to re-industrialize or reform their planning systems to help reduce housing prices. They will remain increasingly bifurcated between a very well-educated, affluent population clustered around the most elite industries and an underclass of poor, undereducated people. California, for example, ranks 14th in percentage of college graduates, down from 7th in 1970 but in terms of high school non-graduates it has soared from 44th to 2nd.
The findings are the latest to show that while America’s economy is finally picking up steam again six years after the Great Recession, many black and Hispanic Americans—and indeed, much of the nation’s middle-class—are being left behind.
Labor-force participation—the percentage of the population that is looking for work or employed—is now lower than at the end of the recession. There is a lot of room to grow. And the growth of productivity—the amount of goods and services produced per worker-hour—has hovered around 1% for the past five years, less than half the nearly 2.5% average of the previous 20 years. There is room for acceleration there, too.
Personal income increased $50.8 billion, or 0.3 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $52.6 billion, or 0.4 percent, in January, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $18.9 billion, or 0.2 percent. In December, personal income increased $45.3 billion, or 0.3 percent, DPI increased $37.3 billion, or 0.3 percent, and PCE decreased $35.7 billion, or 0.3 percent, based on revised estimates.
Personal income rose less than expected while personal spending fell more than expected in January.
The U.S. economy cooled in the final months of 2014, a return to the moderate growth that has marked much of the recovery.
Driven by a tumble in oil prices since mid-2014, the consumer-price index fell 0.1% in January from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the first year-over-year decrease since October 2009. Prices fell 0.7% from December.
Real gross domestic product — the value of the production of goods and services in the United States, adjusted for price changes — increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the “second” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 5.0 percent.
While progress in the national and state economies has boosted confidence, optimism on the part of both consumers and businesses is still tempered by caution. Following a 2.2% increase in 2014, nonfarm jobs are expected to increase by 2.2% again in 2015, slowing slightly to 2.1% in 2016. The unemployment rate will fall from 7.5% in 2014 to 6.7% this year and 6.3% in 2016. With continued improvement in the labor market, both personal income and total taxable sales should increase by four percent this year, accelerating to six percent in 2016.
No question, inequality is extremely high from a historical perspective – worrisomely so. But a new analysis, by Stephen J. Rose of George Washington University, adds an important wrinkle to the story: Income inequality has not actually risen since the financial crisis began.
Personal income increased $41.3 billion, or 0.3 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $35.8 billion, or 0.3 percent, in December, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $40.0 billion, or 0.3 percent. In November, personal income increased $47.2 billion, or 0.3 percent, DPI increased $34.2 billion, or 0.3 percent, and PCE increased $58.8 billion, or 0.5 percent, based on revised estimates.
Household purchases declined 0.3 percent, the biggest decline since September 2009, after a 0.5 percent November gain, Commerce Department figures showed Monday in Washington. The median forecast of 68 economists in a Bloomberg survey called for a 0.2 percent drop. Incomes and the saving rate rose.
Some lawmakers represent areas where poverty is a central part of constituents’ daily lives. In some legislative districts, poverty rates are more than double the state average of 16.6 percent, according to the U.S. Census’ most recent American Community Survey. In others, the poverty rates are barely a quarter of the California average.
