Average hourly earnings for residential building workers* continue to rise in February 2023 but at a slower pace. Wage growth has retreated below or close to 3%, from the highest rate of 2021. Labor market data indicate that business hiring is softening as the economy shows signs of weakening. According to the Bureau of Labor…
Job growth slowed in March, along with higher interest rates and increased economic uncertainty. After a revised 326,000 job gain in February, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 236,000 in March, and the unemployment rate declined to 3.5% from 3.6% in February. Average hourly earnings have increased by 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. It marks…
Job growth continued in February. After a revised 504,000 job gain in January, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 311,000 in February, and the unemployment rate edged up to 3.6% from 3.4% in January. Wage growth increased to a 4.6% year-over-year gain from 4.4% last month, but down compared to February 2022. Today’s job report…
Seasonally adjusted home prices continued to fall in December and have declined for six consecutive months due to high mortgage rates and economic uncertainty. Locally, all 20 metro areas, reported by S&P Dow Jones Indices, experienced negative home price appreciation in December. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, reported by S&P Dow…
Job growth rebounded in January. After a declining yet positive pace for five consecutive months, total nonfarm payroll employment growth accelerated and increased by 517,000 in the first month of 2023 and the unemployment rate hit a 53-year low at 3.4% as more people entered the labor market. Construction industry employment (both residential and non-residential)…
The U.S. economy continued to grow in the fourth quarter of 2022. As consumer spending and private inventory investment helped increase GDP, residential fixed investment dragged down the contribution to percent change in real GDP by 1.29 percentage points. More importantly, the data from the GDP report suggests that inflation is cooling. The GDP price…
