Weekly initial jobless claims declined slightly to 847,000 in the week ending January 23. Continuing claims, which lag initial jobless claims by one week, decreased by 203,000 in the week ending January 16. The labor market is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, albeit slowly. According to the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report released by the U.S. Department of Labor recently,… Read More ›

Housing has staged a dramatic turnaround since the Spring of 2020. Due to low mortgage interest rates, a renewed focus on the importance of home, an evolving geography of housing demand, and a lack of for-sale inventory, the housing sector has been a relative bright spot for the economy. For the fourth quarter, overall GDP growth continued a recovery at a… Read More ›

The U.S. economy continued to grow in the fourth quarter of 2020 but was remained below pre-recession levels. This quarter’s growth reflected both the economic recovery from the current recession and the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the “advance” estimate  released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual… Read More ›

After a surge in the pace of new home sales in the middle of the year, the monthly growth rate of newly built single-family home sales slowed at the end of 2020. Sales exceeded construction starts by a historic margin at the end of the summer. This necessitated an increase in starts and some slowing of sales. Nonetheless, the acceleration… Read More ›