Another unexpected effect. How long before the numbers have to be revised downward again?
Are they going to be surprised the next few months when excessive fuel bills from this harsh winter cut into purchasing power? Add to that the increase in food prices this past month or so is impossible to avoid.
3/5/2015
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. productivity in the fourth quarter fell at a revised 2.2% annual pace, new government figures show. The Labor Department originally estimated that productivity fell 1.8% in the final three months of 2014. The increase in output of goods and services was lowered to 2.8% from 3.2%, the Labor Department said. The gain in hours worked was revised down to 4.9% from 5.1%. Unit-labor costs rose 4.1% instead of 2.7% in the fourth quarter. For 2014, productivity rose at slow 0.7% pace
How can you have improvement in unemployment when productivity is declining? Only with Obamanomics.
The wife and I took a motorcycle trip to North Carolina from Texas a couple of years ago. We went off the beaten path through small towns on our way and seldom hit a major interstate.
Very sad. Small town America is being scuttled. Large factory after large factory across this land shutdown, grass knee deep in the parking lots.
I remember a day when congress attempted to protect our industry.
I see the regime has resurrected that word. There isn't an original thought in any of their heads. Bumbling, incompetent liars, all.
All these new jobs, careers at minimum wage, don’t generate the income needed to buy many of these goods and services.
You’ve got to wonder how these minimum wage households will decide what they spend money on after the basics get bought.
If they’ve been declining for 6 months, how can it be “unexpected”?
How could this be?
Extending the longest unexpected streak since the 2008-2009 recession, Factory Orders Unexpectedly Decline 6th Month.
New orders for U.S. factory goods unexpectedly fell in January, posting their sixth straight unexpected monthly decline, a sign of unexpected weakness in the manufacturing sector.
The Commerce Department said on Thursday new orders for manufactured goods unexpectedly slipped 0.2 percent after a revised unexpected 3.5 percent decline in December.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected factory orders to gain 0.2 percent in January after a previously reported unexpected 3.4 percent tumble in December.
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Journalists continue to amaze me. If I was assigned to report on a topic in which the same outcome surprised me month after month, I might change jobs rather than continue to look like an idiot. Journalists don’t seem to mind looking like idiots though - they almost revel in the experience.