Archive for growth

Quickie- US unemployment aid applications plummet to 346K

greatnews

Gotta love adjusting!

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week to a seasonally adjusted 346,000, suggesting March’s weak month of hiring may have been a temporary slowdown.

US unemployment aid applications plummet to 346K Unemployment aid applications dropped by 42,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The steep decline reversed sharp gains over the previous two weeks and brought the level back to a point that signals stronger job growth.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose 3,000 to 358,000.

Hiring picks up, unemployment falls

graphmarch13

Put that in yer pipe and suck it Republicans. Even in the face of all their bullshit, we’re still creating jobs.

The U.S. economy added 236,000 jobs in February, according to a Labor Department report released Friday. That’s much stronger growth than in January, when employers hired a revised 119,000 workers.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate dipped to 7.7%, as 12 million workers were counted as unemployed.

The unemployment rate fell partly because more people said they got jobs, but also because 130,000 people dropped out of the labor force.

Economists surveyed by CNNMoney had predicted 170,000 jobs were added and the unemployment rate fell to 7.8% in February. Stock futures, which were already higher before the jobs report, rose further following the release.

Jobless claims decline, U.S. economy grew 2.7% in third quarter

The jobless claims can mostly be blamed on Sandy, but the economy is a straightforward “GOOD NEWS!”

NEW YORK (CNN Money) — The U.S. economy grew faster than previously reported in the third quarter, as businesses built up their inventories and international trade was stronger than expected.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation’s economic health, grew at an annual rate of 2.7% from July to September, the Commerce Department said Thursday, faster than the 1.3% rate in the second quarter, and better than originally reported.

The Commerce Department estimates the quarterly GDP figures three times, and Thursday’s data marks its second estimate. It had originally reported the economy grew 2% in the third quarter.

The upward revision came mainly from two areas: exports were stronger than expected, growing at a 1.1% annual rate, and businesses built up larger inventories of their products.

UPDATE via Fox Biz email alert:

U.S. Pending Home Sales Jump in October

Contracts to buy previously-owned homes rose 5.2% in October from September, a much bigger jump than the 0.8% expected, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Quickie- October Jobs Report: Growth Better Than Expected Last Month

So Chuck Todd just tore these numbers down to somehow prove that PBO has created a net of 140k or so jobs the past four years (sounds awful) instead of tooting these numbers as GOOD for PBO as all the pundits have predicted they would be seen. You just can’t win.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 171,000 in October, and the unemployment
rate was essentially unchanged at 7.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported today. Employment rose in professional and business services, health care,
and retail trade.

US business stockpiles grew solid 0.6 percent in August as sales rose 0.5 percent

Not barn burning, but a slow steady growth. Apparently economists are feeling the growth too.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. companies restocked their shelves at a solid pace in August while sales rose for a second straight month. The combination of higher stockpiles and increased sales should help to boost economic growth.

Business inventories grew 0.6 percent in August following a July gain of 0.8 percent that had been the strongest since January, the Commerce Department said Monday. Sales were up 0.5 percent in August following a 0.9 percent rise in July that followed a big drop in June.

Companies typically boost their stockpiles when they anticipate sales will rise in coming months. Faster restocking helps drive economic growth. When businesses order more goods, it typically leads to more factory production.

VIDEO: CPAC 13-year-old star speaker is now 17… and no longer conservative

Remember this kid? Jonathan Krohn? He was the kinda creepy super-smart, very conservative, teleprompter-mocking wunderkind speaker at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference):

Look who’s all grown up and not a conservative anymore. His voice isn’t the only thing that’s changing:

Politico:

“I think it was naive,” Krohn now says of the speech. “It’s a 13-year-old kid saying stuff that he had heard for a long time.… I live in Georgia. We’re inundated with conservative talk in Georgia.… The speech was something that a 13-year-old does. You haven’t formed all your opinions. You’re really defeating yourself if you think you have all of your ideas in your head when you were 12 or 13. It’s impossible. You haven’t done enough.”

He claims he’s not a liberal, but he says he’s for the Affordable Care Act and gay marriage and would probably vote for President Obama. He loves “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” The New Yorker magazine, and will be attending– wait for it– New York University where he’ll study philosophy and film making and write political satire.

Krohn also maintains that he’s not a libertarian or a Ron Pauler, asserting that they have “extreme ideas,” but also thinks Van Jones is on the “far far left.”

I have to explain to people over and over and over again that I’m not a conservative and I have my own ideas and I’m not just agreeing to everything that every conservative said. It’s very hard to break a stereotype like that of yourself.”

Via onamatopoeia,wordpress.com

More at Politico.

Quickie- U.S. Factories Rack Up Best Growth In 10 Months

Weren’t the yabberers all going on about a slow down just yesterday? Huh.

(Reuters) – The pace of growth in the manufacturing sector picked up in April to its highest level in 10 months, suggesting the economy still had some resilience after indications it had lost momentum at the start of the second quarter.

The Institute for Supply Management said on Tuesday its index of national factory activity rose to 54.8 from 53.4 in March. The figure bested expectations for a decline to 53.0 and came in above the top end of forecasts, according to a Reuters poll.

A reading below 50 indicates contraction in the manufacturing sector, while a number above 50 means expansion.