The economy continued to add jobs, and the unemployment rate declined, but lay-offs saw a sizable jump. Meanwhile, consumer borrowing enjoyed larger-than-expected growth.
Unemployment
National employment grew by 271,000 jobs in October, which pushed the unemployment rate down to an even 5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week. Key areas of job growth were in professional and business services, healthcare, retail trade, food services and construction. Over the past 12 months, the unemployment rate has dropped by 0.7 percent.
“… This is good news about the trajectory of the economy and points to having stronger growth going into 2016,” Indeed.com chief economist Tara Sinclair told Forbes. “… The strong employer demand today suggests there is still demand out there for more jobs in the future.”
The number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or longer essentially hovered at 2.1 million in October, with the long-term unemployed population accounting for 26.8 percent of total unemployment for October. The civilian labor force participation rate — the percentage of the entire population of employable Americans that has jobs or is actively looking — was also essentially unchanged at 62.4 percent.
The number of people involuntarily employed part-time for economic reasons such as their hours being cut or that being the only unemployment they could secure dropped by 269,000 people to 5.8 million in October. Over the past 12 months, the population of involuntary part-time workers has fallen by 1.2 million people.
Initial Jobless Claims
Initial jobless claims saw a larger-than-expected rise, according to figures released last week by the Employment and Training Administration. First-time claims for unemployment benefits filed by the newly laid off during the week ending Oct. 31 shot up to 276,000, a sizable gain of 16,000 claims over the preceding week’s total of 260,000.
Job market analysts had expected an increase, but to only 262,000 claims. That said, despite the sizable increase, initial claims were still safely below the 300,000-claim mark economists consider indicative of a growing job market.
Meanwhile, the four-week moving average — considered a more stable measure of lay-off activity — grew to 262,750 claims, an increase of 3,500 claims from the prior week’s average of 259,250. This kept the four-week average at low levels not seen since the mid 1970s.
Consumer Credit
Overall consumer credit grew by a surprising 10 percent, or $28.9 billion to hit $3.49 trillion, surging past market expectations of $18 billion, according to totals released last week by the Federal Reserve.
The two main types of consumer credit experienced similar growth. Revolving debt, such as credit cards, grew by 8.7 percent to hit a total of $925 billion, and non-revolving debt, such as student and car loans, expanded by 10.5 percent to hit a total of $2.57 trillion.
Because consumer spending fuels roughly 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, consumer credit is a good indicator how consumer spending will fare over time.
This week we can expect:
Tuesday — Import and export prices for October from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis; September wholesale inventories from the Census Bureau.
Thursday — Initial jobless claims for last week from the Employment and Training Administration; October budget from the Treasury Department.
Friday — October producer price index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics; retail sales for October and business inventories for September from the Census Bureau.
For additional information on how this economic report has affected the Las Vegas Real Estate Market, contact us at (702) 381-4922 or visit our website at http://www.LiveVegasNow.com.
Las Vegas Real Estate Specialist 