Despite strong economic growth and historically low unemployment, a government report released Thursday pointed to an important missing ingredient so far in the U.S. expansion: worker-productivity improvements. Output per hour for workers in nonfarm businesses rose 1.3% in the third quarter from a year earlier, marking the 32nd straight quarter of yearly growth below 2%, […]
American factory activity decelerated in October, while an underlying gauge of activity in factories that make metal products contracted for the first time in about two years. The Institute for Supply Management on Thursday said its manufacturing index fell to 57.7 in October from 59.8 in the previous month, the lowest level in six months. […]
A measure of U.S. consumer confidence rose in October to an almost two-decade high, as Americans expected economic and jobs growth to power ahead despite recent stock-market volatility. The Conference Board on Tuesday said its index of U.S. consumer confidence rose to 137.9 in October, the highest level since September 2000. At the same time, […]
Hiring accelerated in October and the unemployment rate held at a 49-year low, signs of a strengthening labor market that delivered U.S. workers the best pay raises in nearly a decade. U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 250,000 in October, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%, matching lowest […]
For most of the last two decades, the share of women participating in the U.S. labor force was in decline, puzzling demographers and economists since female participation was rising in many other developed economies. Thanks to a strong economy, that long-running decline shows signs of reversing. Labor-force participation among prime-age U.S. women aged 25 to […]
The federal government’s most powerful economic weapon is the tax code, and its most pressing problem is the ailing American Dream. Enter “opportunity zones,” economically distressed communities where new investments can receive preferential tax treatment. The incentives were quietly inserted into last year’s tax-reform bill. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently predicted they could prompt $100 […]
Strong consumer and government spending powered economic growth in the third quarter, although a warning sign about the outlook emerged in the form of weak business investment. Gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S.—grew at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted annual rate of 3.5% from July through September, the Commerce […]
The rise of the U.S. to economic greatness is an extraordinary story. But it is a story with a sting in the tail. Productivity growth in the U.S. has all but stalled in recent years. The number of new companies being created has reached a modern low. Geographical mobility has been in decline for three […]
Consumers who wanted to apply a full federal tax credit to buying a $35,000 Tesla Model 3 sedan appear to be out of luck. The electric-car maker said on its website that orders placed by Monday will be delivered by the end of 2018 and therefore are eligible for the full $7,500 federal tax credit. […]
American employers had more than seven million unfilled jobs for the first time on record this summer, reflecting a historically tight labor market that is causing some businesses to struggle to find workers. There were a seasonally adjusted 7.136 million job openings on the last business day of August, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That […]
U.S. manufacturers increased their capacity for the 16th straight month in September, fresh evidence that a strengthening economy is helping to propel a U.S. industrial rebound. The Trump Administration has prioritized increasing manufacturing investment in the U.S. with tax cuts and tariffs on a range of imported goods. Manufacturing capacity, tracked by the Federal Reserve, […]
U.S. companies are putting savings from the corporate tax cut to use, but only a fraction of it is flowing to employees’ wallets, new data show. In the months after the December tax-code overhaul that lowered the corporate rate to 21% from 35%, dozens of companies such as Walmart Inc.and FedEx Corp. announced one-time bonuses […]
The average cost of employer health coverage offered to workers rose to nearly $20,000 for a family plan this year, according to a new survey, capping years of increases that experts said are chiefly tied to rising prices paid for health services. Annual premiums rose 5% to $19,616 for an employer-provided family plan in 2018, […]
U.S. industries tied to national defense face an “unprecedented set of challenges” that have weakened their ability to quickly make the aircraft, parts and other materiel the military would need to fight rivals such as China or Russia, according to a new White House report. The vulnerabilities stem from factors including receding industrial capacity across […]
The unemployment rate fell in September to the lowest level since the Vietnam War while hiring cooled slightly, the latest signs of an extremely tight labor market. The unemployment rate fell to 3.7% from 3.9% in August, the lowest rate since December 1969, the Labor Department said Friday. U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted […]