A new year: Our progress
After a shaky start, 2015 ended on a positive note, with payrolls up, unemployment down, and the long-term unemployed coming back into the labor force. Our updated spider, or radar, graphs spin an uneven, but encouraging tale; and the OECD recently ranked the U.S. pretty low on the financial vulnerability scale. Even so, we continue to face risks, both at homr and from abroad.
To read full report, click here: SL 1-15
Time to fret about corporate debt and stock prices?
While the job market looked strong in May, consumption seems to be slowing. Worrywarts to the contrary, the labor market is far from tight, but some other indicators are looking a bit late cycle-ish. The Federal Open Market Committee lowered their projections for 2014 in their June meeting, a smart move given the most recent downward revision to Q1 GDP. Diesel fuel sales rose 5.1% over the year for the November-January period, an encouraging signal for future job growth.
Domestic regions
Diesel Fuel Update
The three BEA regions showing the strongest growth in diesel fuel usage, the Northeast, the Midwest, and the Southwest, were the same as in September. Weakness in the Great Lakes might be thought to reflect a slowdown in auto production, but on closer look, much of the sag comes from Wisconsin. The Plains are the laggard, but they did go positive.
Special reports
How Much Has the Job Market Recovered?
We just updated our Jobs Spider, a graph taken from the work of James Bullard, President of the St. Louis Fed, who collected about a dozen takes on the health of the job market. The leading indicators are still a bit ahead of reality, but the distance has narrowed in recent months.