U.S. economic growth slowed in the first quarter, largely the result of a deceleration in consumer spending that hit even though tax cuts fattened the wallets of many American households. Gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S., adjusted for inflation—rose at an annual rate of 2.3% for the months […]
For every job opening in America, there’s now barely more than one unemployed person available to take it. The number of job openings in the U.S. has touched another record high while the number of Americans readily available to fill those roles trends lower, according to Labor Department data released Friday.
Job openings in the U.S. surged to a record 6.3 million, according to the most recent count from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of new positions surged by 645,000 as of the end of January, a new high for the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The metric gets close attention from Federal […]
From February 2017 to February 2018, real average hourly earnings increased 0.4 percent, seasonally adjusted. The increase in real average hourly earnings combined with a 0.3-percent increase in the average workweek resulted in a 0.6-percent increase in real average weekly earnings over the 12-month period.
The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level since December 1969, offering fresh evidence of health in the labor market. Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the U.S., declined by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 210,000 in the week ended Feb. 24, the Labor […]
From January 2017 to January 2018, real average hourly earnings increased 0.8 percent, seasonally adjusted. The increase in real average hourly earnings combined with a 0.3-percent decrease in the average workweek resulted in a 0.4-percent increase in real average weekly earnings over the 12-month period.
U.S. producer prices rose in January, the latest sign of building inflation pressure in the economy. The producer-price index, a measure of the prices businesses charge for their goods and services, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in January from a month earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday. From a year earlier, producer prices advanced 2.7% […]
The consumer-price index, which measures what Americans pay for everything from salad dressing to fares on public transportation, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in January, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, so-called core prices rose 0.3%. That was above economists’ expectations for a 0.4% rise in consumer prices, and […]
Trucking companies are bumping up orders for new big rigs, anticipating that 2018 will be a banner year for shipping demand.
Trucking fleets ordered 32,900 Class 8 trucks, the kind used on long-haul routes, in November, according to ACT Research, which compiles industry statistics. That was up about 70% from a year earlier. The last two months were also the strongest since the start of 2015.
Fleets are adding capacity as strong economic growth fuels surging volumes of freight through the nation’s transportation networks. Trucks are in high demand to carry record imports from ports to distribution centers, move machine parts and heavy goods for manufacturers and merchandise during the holiday shopping season. Shippers are paying higher rates as capacity tightens, creating an incentive to put more trucks on the road.
U.S. worker productivity rebounded in the third quarter while hourly wages rose moderately, further signs the economy is strengthening.
Productivity—a measure of goods and services produced in the U.S. per hour worked—rose at a 3% annual rate in July through September, the Labor Department said Wednesday, the biggest jump in three years.
The U.S. economy is running at its full potential for the first time in a decade, a new milestone for an expansion now in its ninth year.
Total economic output in the third quarter was slightly above the maximum sustainable level of output as estimated by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
This is a measure of the economy’s potential to produce goods and services based on the supply of people working and how productive they are.
California’s economic growth in the second quarter ranks only 35th in the nation, according to a report Tuesday from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Gross domestic product growth in California was just 2.1 percent in the quarter, second-lowest in the West, trailing Hawaii’s rank of 40th.
Real gross domestic product increased in 48 states and the District of Columbia in the second quarter of 2017, according to statistics on the geographic breakout of GDP released today by the BEA. Real GDP by state growth in the second quarter ranged from 8.3 percent in North Dakota to -0.7 percent in Iowa.
U.S. workers boosted output per hour this summer at the best rate in three years, a sign that long sluggish productivity gains might finally be breaking out. Nonfarm business-sector productivity increased at a 3.0% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the third quarter, the Labor Department said Thursday. The gain was better than economists had expected and the largest quarterly improvement since the third quarter of 2014. Productivity is on pace to grow this year at the best pace since 2010, when the economy was first emerging from a deep recession. That’s an improvement from near zero much of 2015 and 2016.
The U.S. economy grew robustly in the third quarter despite two hurricanes, propelled by steady spending from American businesses and households.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services made in the U.S., expanded at a 3% annual rate in July through September, the Commerce Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had projected a 2.7% gain.
Output expanded at 3.1% rate in the second quarter. This marks the economy’s best six-month stretch since mid-2014.
This increase in average hourly earnings stems from a 2.5-percent increase in average hourly earnings being offset by a 2.3-percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).
The increase in real average hourly earnings combined with no change in the average workweek resulted in a 0.2-percent increase in real average weekly earnings over this period.