June Jobs Report Blows Past Expectations

Total nonfarm employment increased by 850,000 in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, well above expectations amid rising demand for services hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

May Housing Starts Seesaw Back on Track

One step back; one step forward. Housing starts have alternated between up and down during 2021, and in keeping with the pattern, improved in May after declining in April, HUD and the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

May Employment Up 559,000; Unemployment Rate Drops to 5.8%

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 559,000 in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday—up substantially from May’s tepid numbers but still below consensus expectations, as hiring slowly recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.

New Home Sales Tumble to 10-Month Low

New home sales took a double hit yesterday, according to HUD and the Census Bureau: not only did April new home sales fall by nearly 6 percent, March sales revised sharply downward by more than 10 percent.

Supply Issues Hold Back April Housing Starts

Supply constraints continue to prevent a sizzling housing market from turning white-hot, with April housing starts falling by nearly 10 percent, HUD and the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

April Jobs Numbers Come in Well Below Consensus

In the days ahead of last Friday’s employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, prognosticators went big, with consensus anticipating nearly one million new April jobs and even one economist confidently predicting 2.1 million new jobs. Alas, nearly everyone was wrong.

March New Home Sales Roar

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, the saying goes, but it evidently doesn’t apply to new home sales.

March Jobs Report: Full Steam Ahead

Another sign that the U.S. economy is heating up: the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday reported total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 916,000 in March, while the unemployment rate fell to 6 percent.

New Home Sales Take a February Hit

Historically, February has never been a big month for home sales—it’s cold, the weather is unpredictable and it’s, well, February. But during the hottest—and strangest—housing winter in memory, could this February also defy logic.