Saturday 5 March 2011

US unemployment rate falls

The positive economic news flow continues in the US. From Bloomberg on Friday:

The U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly fell to 8.9 percent in February, the lowest in almost two years, and employers added 192,000 jobs in a sign of growing confidence in the recovery.

The increase in payrolls partly reflected a return to more seasonable weather and followed a 63,000 gain in January, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists was for an addition of 196,000 jobs last month...

Orders to U.S. factories climbed in January by the most in more than four years as demand for commercial aircraft rebounded after slumping the previous month. Bookings for manufacturers’ goods rose 3.1 percent, the biggest gain since September 2006, after a revised 1.4 percent increase in December, the Commerce Department said today.

However, over in China, there was further evidence that the economy is cooling. From Reuters:

The China Securities Journal cited industry sources who said that new lending last month was less than 600 billion yuan. The median forecast of analysts polled by Reuters forecast was for 650 billion yuan.

It would be the second consecutive month that bank lending fell short of market expectations, suggesting that the government is gaining traction in its campaign to rein in credit growth.

1 comment:

Intrinsic said...

The economy needs to have jobs growing at this rate for awhile for a recovery to be certain. However the more looming problem is the long term effect unemployment on the level of children in poverty.
Intrinsic Value: Unemployment and Children poverty relationship

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