Jobless claims inched higher last week but remain just above a five-year low, the Labor Department reports. That’s an encouraging sign for expecting that the economy will continue to post modest jobs growth in the foreseeable future. Claims have recently fallen to levels unseen for a number of years and the fact that these levels are holding suggests that the bias for expansion is still intact. Meantime, the four-week moving average of claims dropped to another post-recession low last week–another signal that tells us to think positively.
Daily Archives: March 21, 2013
Housing’s Bullish Supply-Demand Squeeze
The rebound in housing “seems to have caught almost everyone in the business by surprise,” the New York Times reports. Surprising or not, the revival is real. As the story reminds, there’s growing demand for housing amid a shrinking supply. Those features suggest that the recent strength in housing, which is a critical pillar of support for the US economy these days, will roll on.