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Strong economic indicators have continued to make the case for a solid American economy, but a slew of new jobs data has policymakers and consumers looking at current conditions in different ways. The case for how and what type of unemployment is measured often leaves economists, lawmakers and market watchers at odds over what exactly various jobs data indicators mean for the current employment market and beyond. Ahead of the government’s jobs reports this morning, The Hill takes a look at the various forces and factors that are moving the employment market

Reddit, the social media platform known for woke politics and leftist censorship, is laying off approximately five percent of its employees and slowing its hiring process according to recent reports. The Wall Street Journal reports that leftist social media site Reddit, known for its extreme censorship of conservatives, is slowing its hiring process and laying off about five percent of its workforce. The action is part of a larger restructuring intended to improve operational efficiency and bring about financial stability. “Reddit is making these moves to address priorities, including funding projects and achieving our goal of breaking even next year,”...

The consumer price index (CPI) fell to a 5 percent annual increase in March from 6 percent in February, the Labor Department reported Wednesday, dropping a full percentage point as prices for goods ranging from fresh produce to automobiles became cheaper. That’s the lowest level of annual consumer inflation since May 2021. Prices have been coming down since last June, when they topped out at a 9.1 percent annual increase.

Global manufacturing growth has started to decelerate as supply chain problems, the rising cost of energy and raw materials, and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine take their toll. Slower growth in manufacturing output and freight transport is inevitable after the recovery from the pandemic, when consumer spending shifted to merchandise from services. As quarantines and other social-distancing restrictions are lifted, spending is being redirected back towards services such as transport, tourism and hospitality, sapping some of the demand for goods. Slower manufacturing and freight growth will be quietly welcomed by policymakers since it is likely to ease supply chain...

Craig Fuller monitors millions of transactions between U.S. truckers and their customers as chief executive of transportation data company FreightWaves – and he does not like what he is seeing. There has been an unexpectedly sharp downturn in demand to truck everything from food to furniture since the beginning of March and rates in the overheated segment that deals in on-demand trucking jobs – known as the spot market – are skidding. “It basically just dropped off a cliff,” said Fuller, who is concerned that the United States is at the start of a trucking recession that could decimate truckers’...

The most recent macroeconomic figures show that the Chinese slowdown is much more severe than expected and not only attributable to the covid-19 lockdowns.,/A>The lockdowns have an enormous impact. 26 of 31 China mainland provinces have rising covid cases and the fear of a Shanghai-style lockdown is enormous. The information coming from Shanghai proves that these drastic lockdowns create an enormous damage to the population. Millions of citizens without food or medicine and rising suicides have shown that the infamous “zero covid” policy often disguises mass population control and repression.It is easy to use the covid-19 lockdowns as the reason...

CORONAVIRUS disruptions have continued in China’s Ningbo, where the world’s third-largest container port is striving to maintain operation levels. Truck entry into the port area remains restricted while some container freight stations have halted operations due to roadblocks and other lockdown measures in the city’s Beilun District, home to a string of large box terminals. The latest infection wave, which emerged on January 1, have so far been contained within the district, where 26 local cases were confirmed as of 2000 hrs local time on January 4, the Ningbo government told a press conference today. Most of them are from...

A man from Sugarloaf Township charged with fleeing the scene after striking a construction worker who died on Interstate-81 waived his right to a preliminary hearing Friday. Zachary Gerbino, 27, appeared before District Judge James M. Dixon where he waived charges of accidents involving death and tampering or fabricating evidence to Luzerne County Court. Gerbino remains free on $25,000 bail. State police at Hazleton allege Gerbino was traveling north in a 2005 Hyundai Accent on I-81 when he struck Kevin DenDulk, 30, of Royersford, Montgomery County, at about 1:15 a.m. on Aug. 1. DunDulk was part of a construction crew...

New export orders contracted for the fifth month in a row in October, to 46.9 from 48 in September. Imports also contracted for a fourth straight month, indicating weakening demand within China, while the decline in manufacturing employment accelerated. Non-manufacturing activity, dominated by the service sector, also slowed in October... We expect a worse growth slowdown in spring 2019.

China’s economic growth slowed in the quarter ending in June, adding to challenges for Beijing amid a mounting tariff battle with Washington. The world’s second-largest economy expanded by 6.7 percent, down from the previous quarter’s 6.8 percent, the government reported Monday. Even before the dispute with Washington erupted, forecasters expected growth to cool after Beijing started tightening controls on bank lending last year to rein in surging debt. Economic activity is expected to decline further as global demand for Chinese exports weakens and lending controls weigh on construction and investment, major contributors to growth. Beijing has responded to previous downturns...

Since the election there has been this perception among the American public that the economy is improving, but that has not been the case at all. U.S. GDP growth for the first quarter was just revised up to 1.2 percent, but that is even lower than the average growth of just 1.33 percent that we saw over the previous ten years. But when you look even deeper into the numbers a much more alarming picture emerges. Commercial and industrial loan growth is declining, auto loan defaults are rising, bankruptcies are absolutely surging and we are on pace to break the...

The warning signs of a credit slowdown are beginning to appear. Late Friday, the Federal Reserve's weekly H.8 report showed that growth in lending for commercial and industrial (C&I) loans has significantly cooled off in recent weeks. According to Bespoke Investment Group, the annualized quarter-over-quarter growth rate of C&I loans fell to 15.17% based on Friday's data. Just two weeks ago this was 19.34%.

There is quite a bit out there about making "black lists" of Trump supporters. I support Ted Cruz for the nomination. I have what I believe are legitimate concerns with Donald Trump. Nonetheless, I will express those concerns at the ballot box, as part of the democratic process. If Mr. Trump should attain the nomination fair and square one has the right to withhold their support, sit it out, vote for Hillary whatever floats their boat. I myself will not. I plan on supporting him. If I held my nose and supported Romney, I think I can manage some support...

Elena HolodnySeptember 28, 2015The US economy grew at a 3.9% pace in the second quarter. The Bureau of Economic Analysis noted that the rise in the GDP was led by consumer spending on healthcare, food services, and accommodation. But notably, the good news about US consumers comes at a time when the rest of the global economy isn't doing so great. Those concerned about the US economy are inevitably wondering which has the bigger incremental effect on growth: the healthy US economy or the ailing international economy? In a recent note to clients, RBC Capital Markets chief US economist Tom...

Tyler Durden 09/21/2014 Just two short months ago, Goldman Sachs was exuberant over the 'expansion' signals that the firm's Global Leading Indicator Swirlogram was exhibiting as it confirmed their 'economists' expectations that the Keynesian hockey-stick of hope would once again re-appear majestically in H2 2014 and lift America (and the world) to escape velocity. That dream is over. Confirming the collapse of world GDP expectations, Goldman's GLI has plunged into 'slowdown' with momentum starting to slow. Perhaps, just perhaps, as we noted previously, this time is not different and the annual cycle of extrapolating early-year hope is rapidly turning to...

Economists, investment analysts, and politicians have spent much of 2014 bemoaning the terrible economic effects of the winter of 2014. The cold and snow have been continuously blamed for the lackluster job market, disappointing retail sales, tepid business investment and, most notably, much slower than expected GDP growth. Given how optimistic many of these forecasters had been in the waning months of 2013, when the stock market was surging into record territory and the Fed had finally declared that the economy had outgrown the need for continued Quantitative Easing, the weather was an absolutely vital alibi. If not for the...

As recently as a couple of quarters ago, analysts were convinced that tablet growth rates would be stratospheric forever, or at least until a few billion people had one.Apple, it was said, was no longer going to be "the iPhone company." It was going to be "the iPad company." And analysts were frantically calculating how much money Apple was going to coin once it was selling more iPads than iPhones.Well, those forecasts aren't looking so promising anymore.Tablet growth has slowed sharply over the past few quarters. And tablet growth at Apple has hit a wall. BII Business Insider Analysts have...

Global emissions of carbon dioxide may be showing the first signs of a "permanent slowdown" in the rate of increase. According to a new report, emissions in 2012 increased at less than half the average over the past decade. Key factors included the shift to shale gas for energy in the US while China increased its use of hydropower by 23%. However the use of cheap coal continues to be an issue, with UK consumption up by almost a quarter. The report on trends in global emissions has been produced annually by the Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency and the European...

Summation of Rant: It's bad for America but great for President Obama & Co.  The End the Slowdown and Raise the Debt Ceiling Bill is now "the law of the land." The Senate passed the bill (81 to 18 with more than half of the Republicans voting "yes"). Then the House of Boehner passed it (286 to 144 with 81 Republicans voting "yes" but more than 60% of House Republicans opposed). The Government slowdown is finished, "we" have financed additional Governmental waste by multiple agencies through January 15th and raised the debt limit from sixteen trillion, six hundred and sixty-nine billion dollars to an...

Everyone knows the phrase "government shutdown" doesn't mean the entire U.S. government is shut down. So in a partial government shutdown, like the one underway at the moment, how much of the government is actually shut down, and how much is not? One way to measure that is in how much money the government spends. In a conversation Thursday, a Republican member of Congress mentioned that the military pay act, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama at the beginning of the shutdown, is actually a huge percentage of the government's discretionary spending in any given year. And that...