Economic News in Review Greenville SC
Here is last week’s Economic News in Review Greenville SC.
Unemployment hit a seven-year low, but wages remained flat. Meanwhile, lay-offs saw a short-term increase, and construction spending enjoyed solid growth.
Unemployment
Unemployment fell to a seven-year low, with the economy adding 223,000 in June, and the unemployment rate dropping to 5.3 percent from May’s 5.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week.
However, while the unemployment dropped, it wasn’t necessarily for the best reasons. The U.S. labor force declined by 432,000 people in June. This caused the labor force participation rate to drop by 0.3 percent to 62.6 percent in June.
Moreover, wages were flat in June, with average hourly earnings hovering at $24.95. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees edged up by 2 cents to $20.99 for the month. That said, while wages showed no movement in June, that might change given difficulties employers are having.
“More and more employers are saying they’re having trouble finding good qualified employees, or once they find them, holding onto them before they jump to some other job,” PNC Financial Services Chief Economist Stuart Hoffman told Reuters.
Initial Jobless Claims
First-time claims for unemployment benefits filed by the newly laid off during the week ending June 27 grew to 281,000, an increase of 10,000 claims from the preceding week’s unrevised level of 271,000 claims, the Employment and Training Administration reported last week.
Analysts cautioned reading too much into the increase, because it was occurring near a holiday week, which can cause some disruption in reporting and seasonal skewing in the figures. On the whole, claims have been falling in general terms since 2009, and have been below the 300,000-claim mark for 17 straight weeks.
“… The underlying trend in layoffs is very low and stable, and consistent with robust payroll growth,” Pantheon Macroeconomics Chief Economist Ian Shepherdson told the Wall Street Journal.
Looking at the four-week moving average, which is considered a more stable measure of lay-off activity, claims ticked up to 274,750, a gain of 1,000 claims from the prior week’s average of 273,750.
Construction Spending
Turning to real estate, construction spending grew 0.8 percent during May to hit an annual rate of $1.03 trillion, up from April’s revised estimate of $1.02 trillion, the Census Bureau reported last week. This was its highest point in six and a half years. Compared annually, May’s performance was 8.2 percent over May 2014’s estimate of $957.6 billion.
Spending on private construction hit an annual rate of $752.4 billion, which was 0.9 percent over April’s revised estimate of $745.6 billion, the bureau reported. Residential construction growth was less dramatic, inching up 0.3 percent to an annual rate of $359.5 billion.
Economic News in Review Greenville SC
Have a Big day,
Randy
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