LAST WEEK

News & Commentary Weekly Highlights:

• Real Clear Markets: CEO Pay Ratios Didn’t Cause the Crisis, and Won’t Fix Inequality (Friday)
• Bloomberg: Unintended Consequences of Wal-Mart’s Raise: Unhappy Workers (Thursday)
• Wall Street Journal: U.S. Treasury Says Cash Balance Could Slip (Wednesday)
• Forbes: The Very Costly Truth About Obama’s “Energy” Plan (Wednesday)
• Wall Street Journal: Federal Aid’s Role in Driving Up Tuition Gains Credence (Monday)

 

Top Economic Indicator Highlights:

Employment Situation (June 2015)

Household Survey

• Unemployment rate: 5.3%
• Long-term unemployed (% of unemployed): 26.9%
• Labor force participation rate: 62.6%
• Employment-to-population ratio: 59.3%

Establishment Survey

• Nonfarm payroll jobs: 215,000
• Private payrolls: 210,000
• Average workweek: 34.6 hours
• Largest industry sector decrease (by level): Mining, including support activities, and oil and gas extraction (-0.5%, -4,900)
• Largest industry sector increase (by level): Retail trade (+0.2%, +35,900)
• Noteworthy: In the household survey, the long-term unemployed as a share of the unemployed ticked up 1.1 percentage points from 25.8%. The establishment survey’s nonfarm payrolls for May and June were revised up slightly. May nonfarm payrolls were revised to 260,000 jobs added from 254,000; June nonfarm payrolls were revised up to 231,000 from 223,000.

 

THIS WEEK

Upcoming Economic Reports & Releases:

Major Indicators

• Productivity and Costs (8:30am, Tuesday)
• Wholesale Trade (10am, Tuesday)
• Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (10am, Wednesday)
• Treasury Budget (2pm, Wednesday)
• Retail Sales (8:30am, Thursday)
• Business Inventories (10am, Thursday)
• Producer Price Index for Final Demand (8:30am, Friday)
• Industrial Production (9:15am, Friday)

 

Chart of the Week: