Tag: february

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Politics Unemployment

Report – 175,000 Jobs Added in February

After two months of reporting weak job growth, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that, seasonally adjusted, 162,000 new private jobs were created in February. Government at all levels hired 13,000. The official unemployment rate—which BLS calls U3 and calculates in a separate survey—rose to 6.7 percent.

The bureau revised its previously reported results for December from 75,000 to 84,000, and in January from 113,000 to 129,000. That brought the three-month average to 129,000. At that rate, it would take until September 2023 to return us to the pre-recession employment situation while absorbing the people who enter the labor force each month. At 175,000 a month, it would take until January 2020.

In the previous three years (2011-2013), seasonally adjusted job growth for the December-January period averaged a monthly 103,000, 261,000 and 230,000 respectively.

Categories
Economic growth Politics

More Good News – Retail Sales Saw Solid Gains In February

More good news for the economy. Reuters is reporting that retail sales rose solidly in February as Americans bought automobiles and other goods even as they paid more for gasoline, suggesting consumer spending this quarter will hold up despite higher taxes.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday retail sales increased 1.1 percent, the largest rise since September, after a revised 0.2 percent gain in January.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected retail sales to rise 0.5 percent last month after a previously reported 0.1 percent gain in January.

So-called core sales, which strip out automobiles, gasoline and building materials and correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product, rose 0.4 percent after advancing 0.3 percent in January.

U.S. stock index futures erased earlier losses, while prices for Treasury debt fell. The dollar rose against the yen and extended gains versus the euro.

The retail sales data was the latest to suggest momentum in the economy as fiscal policy tightened, marked by the end of a 2 percent payroll tax cut and an increase in tax rates for wealthy Americans on January 1.

Categories
Politics Unemployment

More Jobs Created – Unemployment Rate Falls To 7.7 Percent

A surprisingly strong jobs report for February sparked renewed faith in the economic recovery despite looming federal spending cuts and the recent increase in payroll taxes and gasoline prices.

Unemployment fell to 7.7 percent last month, from 7.9 percent in January.

It was the lowest rate of joblessness since December 2008, when the financial crisis and recession first pushed unemployment above 7 percent.

February produced 236,000 more jobs than were lost, the report said, higher than many optimistic forecasts had expected.

Much of the increase came in key areas such as construction work, which posted its best hiring in six years in part thanks to a recovery in housing activity.

 

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