A Positive Omen in Capital Goods Spending in January
New orders of capital goods, an important component by which economists measure business activity, increased in January. Many economists believe that business and consumer spending on goods is the reason for the strong showing last month. Capital goods was up 6.5%...
Personal Income Jumps Exponentially in January 2021 – A Sign of Economic Improvement
Personal income had its biggest increase since April last month, the result of government aid in the form of stimulus checks going out to millions of Americans, continued unemployment benefits and other pandemic response programs. Personal income rose 10 percent in...
Home prices end 2020 with significant growth, as demand transcends pandemic-induced recession
Home prices finished 2020 on a strong note, an indication that while the COVID-19 pandemic has battered other areas of the economy, the housing market continues to see increasing demand. National home prices rose 10.4% in December compared to a year earlier, a bump...
Retail sales rose in January, fueled by $600 stimulus checks
Retail sales rose significantly in January, a sharp departure from a three-month decline and a promising sign that the economy is rebounding. Sales increased by 5.3 percent, indicating a rise in consumer spending that far surpassed the average 1.18 percent increase...
Trucking Suffers Biggest Job Loss on Record
Americans are ordering more online during the coronavirus pandemic, truck drivers are more important than ever. But that is not helping drivers like Elmer Giron. Giron is an owner/operator of Elmer’s Trucking LLC, based in Houston, Texas. Every morning, he gets up...
Gender Segregation in Jobs and Women Taking the Brunt of the Recession.
When Erin Haley-Hitz's boss called to tell her that she was laid off in mid-March, her first reaction was relief. As a dental hygienist, her job involved coming into close contact with dozens of people every week — social distancing wasn't an option. But it didn't...
Construction Industry Faces Uncertain Future Even Where Deemed Essential
Construction in the US has been booming in recent years, spurred on by a healthy economy. But the coronavirus pandemic has caused a significant number of construction projects to be put on pause or cancelled altogether, an example of how the recession promises to...
Remote Call Centers Could be Lifeline for Workers Hit Hard by Lockdowns. If They Can Pay Better than Unemployment
When New York State closed all non-essential work spaces in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chris Fitts, like millions of other workers, was forced to start working from home. Unlike the estimated 30 plus million people who lost their jobs over the last two months,...
After Coronavirus, Could Clothes Made in the USA Mean More Jobs? It’s Complicated.
Meg Kinney was already producing most of her garments in the U.S. when factories in China closed because of the novel coronavirus. She was quickly able to reallocate products she was going to manufacture there back to her trusted factories in New York City. And then...
Joblessness Surges to Depression Era Levels
An avalanche of job losses swept the nation in April, in the most vivid portrait yet of an historically battered labor market.The unemployment rate shot up to a record 14.7 percent, the Department of Labor said Friday in its monthly employment report, a one month...