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The U.S. Payroll to Population employment rate (P2P), as measured by Gallup, worsened in May, dropping to 43.9%, from 44.5% in April. P2P is also down from May 2012, when it was 44.4%. ... Gallup's P2P metric is an estimate of the percentage of the U.S. adult population aged 18 and older who are employed full time by an employer for at least 30 hours per week. P2P is not seasonally adjusted.

<p>The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, pointing to moderate job growth despite slowing economic activity.</p> <p>Initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 346,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 3,000 more applications received than previously reported.</p>

Traders confused: is the job market improving, or not? Markets were volatile again today, this time on signs that the jobs market may not be as strong as some hoped. A report on private sector employment by ADP was weaker than expected, as was an employment gauge released as part of a survey of purchasing managers in the services industry. That is causing some to consider lowering their estimates for Friday's critical May jobs report. This is confusing, because Fed officials have been talking about tapering their purchases of bonds as the job market improves. So which is it? To...

An economic forecast says the country’s expected “Great Recovery” hasn’t materialized and the economy’s fallen short of even normal growth. The Los Angeles Times reports the gloomy picture appears in the quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast released Wednesday. It says that real gross domestic product growth – the inflation-adjusted value of goods and services produced – is well below the 3percent growth trend of past recoveries. The forecast says the country isn’t creating enough good jobs. However, the forecast also says a housing market recovery should boost the GDP over the next two years and bring down unemployment, falling to 6.9...

MISS: US COMPANIES ADD ONLY 135,000 JOBS Sam Ro June 5, 2013The ADP jobs report is out, and it's a miss. US companies added only 135,000 jobs in May, which was well below the 165,000 expected by economists. The April measure was also revised down to +113,000 from a prior reading of +119,000. "Notably, a gain of 5,000 jobs in the construction industry during May was offset by a decline of 6,000 lost jobs in the manufacturing industry," said ADP's Carlos Rodriguez. Here's a break down by company size: * Small (1-49 employees): +58,000 * Medium (50-499 employees): +39,000 *...

The Los Angeles Times ( http://lat.ms/13ESjj3) reports the gloomy picture appears in the quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast released Wednesday. It says that real gross domestic product growth - the inflation-adjusted value of goods and services produced - is well below the 3-percent growth trend of past recoveries. The forecast says the country isn't creating enough good jobs. However, the forecast also says a housing market recovery should boost the GDP over the next two years and bring down unemployment, falling to 6.9 percent next year. California, meanwhile, outperformed the nation in job growth during a 12-month period that ended in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but not enough to suggest a shift in the recent pattern of modest job gains. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 354,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 4,000 more applications received than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-time applications to hold steady at 340,000 last week. A Labor Department analyst said claims for five states, including Virginia, Minnesota and Oregon, were estimated since state...

The good news is health care costs are going up more slowly. The bad news is that families continue to see larger medical bills. The typical cost to cover a family of four now exceeds $22,000, including the amount paid in insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs, according to the latest Milliman Medical Index for 2013. Milliman, an actuarial and benefits consultant, puts the cost at slightly less than the amount a family might pay to send a child to an in-state public college for a year. This year’s increase over last was only 6.3 percent, according to the analysis from...

We didn't really need a confirmation that the economy was deteriorating and completely disconnected from the "market", but we got it nonetheless. First, Initial Claims coming at 360K, on expectations of 330K, the worst print and worst miss in six weeks, confirming that weekly data is largely noise and that there is no sustainable downward trend. The May 11 weekly print adjusted and unadjusted were 360K and 318K respectively, virtually unchanged from a year ago at 373K and 325K, showing that in one year there has been essentially no progress, and that weekly initial claims of 350K is the new...

Many part-timers are facing a double whammy from President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. The law requires large employers offering health insurance to include part-time employees working 30 hours a week or more. But rather than provide health care to more workers, a growing number of employers are cutting back employee hours instead. The result: Not only will these workers earn less money, but they'll also miss out on health insurance at work. Consider the city of Long Beach, Calif. It is limiting most of its 1,600 part-time employees to fewer than 27 hours a week, on average. City officials...

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The S&P 500 fell after a spate of negative surprises in economic reports was balanced against expectations that the Federal Reserve will not be winding down its asset purchases in the near future. The latest employment numbers pointed to a slowdown in the economy with payroll processor ADP reporting that the private sector added 119,000 jobs in April vs. a downwardly-revised 131,000 in March. The number was below the consensus estimate of 150,000, according to Thomson Reuters. Similarly, the ISM Manufacturing Index dipped to 50.7 in April from 51.3 in March, falling further than the 50.9...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Orders for big-ticket U.S. items posted the biggest drop in March since last summer, mainly because of fewer jetliner bookings but also as orders softened in most categories. Orders for durable goods fell 5.7% last month to mark the biggest drop since last August, the Commerce Department said Wednesday in data suggesting the manufacturing sector cooled off a bit toward the end of the first quarter. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected a 3.2% decline.

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Instead of improving to 5.01M in March, US existing home sales fell from 4.95M to 4.92M,

Existing home sales were just announced and they were down -0.6% in March after printing at +0.8% in February (but revised downwards to +0.2%). Analysts were expecting +0.4%. A swing and a miss. Median home prices for existing home sales rose 6.4% from February to March. The Chicago Fed National Activity Index plunged in March to -0.23 from a reading in February of 0.44. Analysts were expecting a print of 0.29. Now, THAT is a big swing and a miss! And the Chicago Fed index and leading economic indicators are trending downwards. But Fox’s Eric Bolling says that real GDP...

If you want to see where a little bit of your $833 billion stimulus went, head south from St. Louis on Interstate 44 until you reach the Mark Twain National Forest. On March 13, 2009, less than a month after President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) into law, the federal government awarded $462,912.30 to a Spokane, Washington, construction firm called CXT Incorporated to build and install 22 “precast concrete toilets” in the park. These bunker-style commodes did not add to the number of bathrooms in the forest; they replaced existing toilets that didn’t meet Forest Service...

Setting up insurance exchanges — the centerpiece of President Obama's healthcare reform law — is costing the Health and Human Services Department a whole lot more than it originally expected. According to budget documents released Wednesday, the department expects to spend $4.4 billion on exchange grants to the states by the end of this year — double its estimates a year ago. The HHS is also asking Congress for another $1.5 billion to set up a federal exchange in 26 states. The department has cobbled together money from other programs to get started, but officials said they need another $800...

Environment Colorado, also known as the Colorado chapter of the National Association of the Irony Challenged, is to release a report this week about how global warming – keep that word “warming” in mind – is endangering Colorado. ... The junior geniuses at Environment Colorado had planned to unveil their map about global warming at a really big press conference – but something unexpected occurred. The press conference was canceled and the map is to be unveiled via a telephone conference because of, wait for it … oh yes, you did indeed see this coming: No press conference because of...

Activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector expanded at a much slower than expected rate in the month of March, according to a report released by the Institute for Supply Management on Monday. The ISM said its purchasing managers index fell to 51.3 in March from 54.2 in February, although a reading above 50 indicates continued growth in the manufacturing sector. While the index pointed to the fourth consecutive month of growth in the manufacturing sector, economists had expected a much more modest decrease to a reading of 54.0. Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital, said, "This could be the...

WASHINGTON—Millions of people who take advantage of government subsidies to help buy health insurance next year could get stung by surprise tax bills if they don't accurately project their income. President Barack Obama's new health care law will offer subsidies to help people buy private health insurance on state-based exchanges, if they don't already get coverage through their employers. The subsidies are based on income. The lower your income, the bigger the subsidy

<p>The number of Americans designated as "not in the labor force" in February was 89,304,000, a record high, up from 89,008,000 in January, according to the Department of Labor. This means that the number of Americans not in the labor force increased 296,000 between January and February.</p>