Weekly Economic Update: January 11-15, 2016
LAST WEEK
News & Commentary Weekly Highlights:
- Fox Business: Americans Don’t Have Enough Money to Retire (Thursday)
- Wall Street Journal: Fed Minutes Reveal Officials’ Concern About Low Inflation (Wednesday)
- Market Watch: Study Finds Higher Minimum Wage Hurting Youth Unemployment (Tuesday)
- Wall Street Journal: The U.S. Economy’s Latest Growth Is Looking Increasingly Frail (Monday)
- Bloomberg Business: Biggest Economies Face $7 Trillion Refinancing Tab in 2016 (Monday)
Top Economic Indicator Highlights:
International Trade Balance (November 2015)
- Trade Deficit: $42.4 billion, M/M change: -4.9%, Y/Y change: -5.5%
- Imports: $224.6 billion, M/M change: -1.7%, Y/Y change: -2.8%
- Exports: $182.2 billion, M/M change: -0.9%, Y/Y change: -4.6%
- Noteworthy: The U.S. international trade deficit in goods and services decreased $2.2 billion from $44.6 billion in October. Although exports declined, imports fell by a greater amount, thereby narrowing the trade deficit. The overall takeaway from the report is slowing global trade.
THIS WEEK
Upcoming Economic Reports & Releases:
Major Indicators
- Labor Market Conditions Index (10am, Monday)
- Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (10am, Tuesday)
- Treasury Budget (2pm, Wednesday)
- Retail Sales (8:30am, Friday)
- Producer Price Index for Final Demand (8:30am, Friday)
- Industrial Production (9:15am, Friday)
- Business Inventories (10am, Friday)
Major Indicators and Events
- 2016 State of the Union Address (9pm, Tuesday)
- Beige Book (10am, Wednesday)
Chart of the Week:
The chart above demonstrates some of the payroll changes that have occurred in some of the largest industries since the beginning of 2009. Using January 2009 as the baseline for each industry, the chart demonstrates how much each industry selected has grown over the past seven years from that point. Payroll job growth has surged in education and health, professional services, leisure and hospitality, and retail trade. However, construction and manufacturing payrolls remain below their January 2009 levels.