Hiring is slightly picking up, but very slowly. Many government sector jobs were lost in August which added significantly to overall job losses. The U.S. economy lost a total of 54,000 jobs in August as reported by the Labor Department today and matched the revised estimate for jobs lost in the prior month. The public…
The U.S. Department of Labor data reports that for the week ending Aug. 28 , “the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 472,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 478,000. The 4-week moving average was 485,500, a decrease of 2,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 488,000.”…
Tory Capital Economics Blog. Could the economy be picking up steam and will the data continue show economic strength? Manufacturing up but ADP report down; the data released today was mixed. The Institute for Supply Management’s gauge of manufacturing rose from 55.5 to 56.3 in August. Index levels above 50 are signals of economic growth. …
Consumer confidence rises but still low. The Conference Board, the New York research group that provides the index measurement stated that consumer confidence rose to 53.5 from 51.0. This evidence shows that the consumer is still hanging on waiting for the economy to pick up steam. The last two months have shown a slight reversal…
FT.com reports Google YouTube video is in negotiations to launch a pay-per-video service by the end of the year. FT.com states “Google’s YouTube video site is in negotiations with Hollywood’s leading movie studios to launch a global pay-per-view video service by the end of 2010, putting it head-to-head with Apple in the race to dominate…
Nielsen reported recently that mobile media growth will significantly outpace internet and other traditional media platforms. This growth will occur in countries that are growing at a significant pace. A new report from Nielsen Wire and The Cambridge Group, found that growth of the cell phone penetration will “defy classic economic models“. The growth rate…
The Fed has only a few tools that can use to help get the economy growing faster and global conditions matter. This week U.S. housing data came in that was weaker than expected, GDP was revised downward consumer confidence edged up slightly. The Chicago Fed National Activity Index also increased marginally this week. As the…
Consumer confidence rises slightly and GDP is revised down from 2.4 percent. New data from the University of Michigan shows that the consumer is still hurting emotionally but expectations have nudged slightly upward. GDP numbers came in at 1.6 percent growth confirming early evidence that consumer has not rebounded yet in this sluggish recovery. Federal…
Paul Taylor and Wendy Wang from Pew Research Center have written a new paper about the need for television and telephones. Their work entitled, “The Fading Glory of the Television and Telephone“, shows that these items have decreased in terms of consumer desire and importance. Televisions and landline telephones are less considered necessities by the…
