LAST WEEK

News & Commentary Weekly Highlights:

• Wall Street Journal: How Washington Punishes Small Businesses (Thursday)
• E21: Government Can’t Spend Money to Save Money (Wednesday)
• Reuters: U.S. Trade Data Points to First-Quarter Economic Contraction (Tuesday)
• Wall Street Journal: Economic Mobility Trumps the Income Gap as Bigger Worry (Tuesday)
• Washington Times: Our Economic ‘Slow-Rolling Crisis’ (Monday)

 

Top Economic Indicator Highlights:

Employment Situation (April 2015)

Household Survey

• Unemployment rate: 5.4%
• Long-term unemployed (% of unemployed): 29.0%
• Labor force participation rate: 62.8%
• Employment-to-population ratio: 59.3%

Establishment Survey

• Nonfarm payroll jobs: 223,000
• Private payrolls: 213,000
• Average workweek: 34.5 hours
• Largest industry sector decrease (by level): Mining and logging, including support activities, and oil and gas extraction (-1.8%, -15,000)
• Largest industry sector increase (by level): Professional and business services (+0.3%, +62,000)
• Noteworthy: In the household survey, full-time employment fell over the month of April, down 302,000; in contrast, part-time jobs advanced 437,000. By age group, those age 55 and older gained 255,000 net employment, while prime age workers (25-54 years old) fell 19,000. Net employment for younger workers was up 8,000. Revisions to March’s data, the previous employment report, were particularly harsh. The March establishment survey’s nonfarm payrolls were revised down to 85,000 jobs added from 126,000; private payrolls were revised down to 94,000 from 129,000.

 

THIS WEEK

Upcoming Economic Reports & Releases:

Major Indicators

• Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS, 10am, Tuesday)
• Retail Sales (8:30am, Wednesday)
• Import and Export Prices (8:30am, Wednesday)
• Business Inventories (10am, Wednesday)
• Producer Price Index for Final Demand (PPI-FD, 8:30am, Thursday)
• Industrial Production (9:15am, Friday)

 

Reports

• Treasury Budget (2pm, Tuesday)

 

Chart of the Week: