Initial and continuing claims: yellow caution flag reinstated – by New Deal democrat Initial claims rose sharply last week, up 28,000 to 261,000 (an 18 month high). The 4 week average rose 7,500 to 237,250, still lower than its April peak. Continuing claims, with a one week delay, declined -37,000 to 1.757 million: When we […]
Scenes from the employment report: an important trend in self-employment; and real aggregate payrolls – by New Deal democrat We’re still in the week of drought following the payrolls release last Friday. Today let’s take a look at a few more items of interest from the Household Survey side. As you probably recall, the bottom […]
The consumer may finally be faltering – by New Deal democrat At this point I think the “smart” econ take is that either any recession is very much delayed, or even not going to happen at all. While everything is possible, I’ve argued in several places that if you date a potential business cycle peak […]
Scenes from the May employment report: leading indicators and the big picture – by New Deal democrat As I wrote Friday, the May employment report was deeply bifurcated, with a strong Establishment survey, but a weak Household survey. Let’s take a look at some of that bifurcation, focusing on the leading indicators. There are […]
Weekly Indicators for May 29 – June 2 at Seeking Alpha – by New Deal democrat My “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. Much like yesterday’s employment report, which showed a deep bifurcation between the Establishment and Household Surveys, the economy as a whole is also showing a deep bifurcation between elements well into recessionary […]
Dueling May jobs reports: establishment report strong, household report pre-recessionary – by New Deal democrat My focus for this report continued to be whether the leading sectors and other indicators continued to decline, and whether the pace of growth continued to decelerate. The establishment side of the report was strong, with most leading indicators improving. […]
Intensified decline in manufacturing, but another sign of a bottom in residential construction – by New Deal democrat As usual, we start the month with reports on last month’s manufacturing, and construction from two months ago. The ISM manufacturing index has a 75 year record of being a very reliable leading indicator. According to the […]
New and improved initial claims! Now including comparison to Sahm Rule – by New Deal democrat I’m making an important addition to my weekly blurb on jobless claims this week: I’m showing how it compares with and leads the Sahm Rule. Just in case you’re not familiar with the Sahm Rule, it is a rule of […]
New Deal democrat has been doing JOLTS reports for a long time. Some of you may understand what NDd is discussing and some may not. Just a quick one liner to help you understand why this is important. JOLTS is a monthly survey of U.S. job vacancies, hiring, and job separations released by the Bureau […]
House prices may have bottomed, while YoY price increases (leading inflation) have declined to lower than their 25-year average – by New Deal democrat Seasonally adjusted house prices through March as measured by both the FHFA (light blue in the graphs below) and Case Shiller (dark blue) Indexes rose, the former by 0.7% and the […]