Weekly Economic Update: August 10-14, 2015
LAST WEEK
News & Commentary Weekly Highlights:
- Real Clear Markets: CEO Pay Ratios Didn’t Cause the Crisis, and Won’t Fix Inequality (Friday)
- Bloomberg: Unintended Consequences of Wal-Mart’s Raise: Unhappy Workers (Thursday)
- Wall Street Journal: U.S. Treasury Says Cash Balance Could Slip (Wednesday)
- Forbes: The Very Costly Truth About Obama’s “Energy” Plan (Wednesday)
- Wall Street Journal: Federal Aid’s Role in Driving Up Tuition Gains Credence (Monday)
Top Economic Indicator Highlights:
Employment Situation (June 2015)
- Unemployment rate: 5.3%
- Long-term unemployed (% of unemployed): 26.9%
- Labor force participation rate: 62.6%
- Employment-to-population ratio: 59.3%
- Nonfarm payroll jobs: 215,000
- Private payrolls: 210,000
- Average workweek: 34.6 hours
- Largest industry sector decrease (by level): Mining, including support activities, and oil and gas extraction (-0.5%, -4,900)
- Largest industry sector increase (by level): Retail trade (+0.2%, +35,900)
- Noteworthy: In the household survey, the long-term unemployed as a share of the unemployed ticked up 1.1 percentage points from 25.8%. The establishment survey’s nonfarm payrolls for May and June were revised up slightly. May nonfarm payrolls were revised to 260,000 jobs added from 254,000; June nonfarm payrolls were revised up to 231,000 from 223,000.
THIS WEEK
Upcoming Economic Reports & Releases:
Major Indicators
- Productivity and Costs (8:30am, Tuesday)
- Wholesale Trade (10am, Tuesday)
- Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (10am, Wednesday)
- Treasury Budget (2pm, Wednesday)
- Retail Sales (8:30am, Thursday)
- Business Inventories (10am, Thursday)
- Producer Price Index for Final Demand (8:30am, Friday)
- Industrial Production (9:15am, Friday)
Chart of the Week:
