Category: U.S. Economy
Update USA Unemployment Rate
American unemployment rate for April came in in line with our forecast at 4.4%. This was a slight decrease from March’s 4.5%.
The economy generated 211,000 new jobs in April. Wages also improved by 0.3% to $26.19 / hour. Year-over-year hourly pay increased by 2.5% which is ahead of the inflation rate thereby improving personal income.
Update USA Trade Balance
Trade with other countries continued to expand and the deficit declined by 0.1 billion to $43.7 billion in March. Even though the monthly exports and imports dropped, they dropped nearly equally. The trade balance movement on a monthly basis was close to the average change since 1997. On a year-over-year basis the trade deficit grew by 7.5% because imports grew by $47.5 billion while exports grew, but by a lesser amount, $30.0 billion. The trade deficit remained near the recent trend of the past six years, post-Great Recession.
Update USA Unemployment 1st Time Claims
Employment jobless claims for 1st time requests is down 19,000 on a month-to-month basis in April well below the 300,000 unofficial benchmark at 238,000. Additionally, the 4-week average remained nearly flat at 243,000. Continuing claims were also down by 23,000 to 1.96 million.
Update USA Business Activity
American non-manufacturing survey from ISM shows a continuing improvement in the area. For the 88th consecutive month the measure grew now standing at 57.5 in April. This is a 2.3-point improvement over the previous month.
Update USA ADP Employment Survey
Employment continues to do well in the U.S. with the addition of 177,000 in nonfarm payrolls. While the current addition is less than previous months, it is inline with the upward trend of around 200,000 per month addition. The current level of 177,000 is better than 4 of the past 12 months. It will be increasingly more difficult to add in employment numbers as the unemployment rate continues to drop.