Blah, blah, blah!
Unemployment
Housing starts and building permit applications
Gas PricesShort version, both initial and continuing claims are down, but new housing starts are cratering.
Considering last weeks abysmal jobs reports, and a general lack in both the honesty and the competence of the BLS and other agencies under Trump, I'm not sure of the reliability of these number.
I'm pessimistic.
The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, suggesting labor market conditions remained stable even after the economy shed jobs in February, but the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran poses a downside risk.
For now, the low level of layoffs evident in the report from the Labor Department on Thursday should give the Federal Reserve room to keep interest rates unchanged for some time as the conflict in the Middle East drives up oil prices and threatens to fan domestic inflation, economists said. The war has raised gasoline prices by at least 20% since it started.
………
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 213,000 for the week ended March 7. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 215,000 claims for the latest week. Claims have been tucked in a 199,000-232,000 range this year amid low layoffs. The government reported last week that nonfarm payrolls decreased by 92,000 jobs in February, the sixth decline since January 2025 and the second largest.
………
The number of people receiving unemployment benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, dropped 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.850 million during the week ended February 28, the claims report showed. The so-called continuing claims could be declining as some people exhaust their eligibility, limited to 26 weeks in most states.
Continuing claims also do not include recent college graduates, who are experiencing long spells of unemployment, because they have limited or no work history, disqualifying them from claiming jobless benefits. The unemployment rate increased to 4.4% in February from 4.3% in January.
………
Other news on the economy was mixed, with the housing market still mired in weakness and the trade deficit contracting in January. Single-family housing starts, which account for the bulk of homebuilding, dropped 2.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 935,000 units, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau said in a separate report.
The report was delayed by last year's shutdown of the federal government. The drop in homebuilding likely reflected inclement weather as single-family housing starts tumbled 33.3% in the Northeast and fell 4.6% in the South, among the areas slammed by heavy snow and frigid temperatures in January.
Single-family starts dropped 6.5% year-on-year.
The hell if I know what is happening here.
0 comments :
Post a Comment