Washington, DC CNN — Spending at US retailers fell in March as consumers pulled back after the banking crisis fueled recession fears. Retail sales, which are adjusted for seasonality but not for inflation, fell by 1% in March from the prior month, the Commerce Department reported on Friday. That was steeper than an expected 0.4% … Read more
Minneapolis CNN — The US economy added 311,000 jobs in February, according to the latest monthly employment snapshot from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday. That’s a pullback from the blockbuster January jobs report, when a revised 504,000 positions were added, but shows the labor market is still emitting plenty of heat. The unemployment … Read more
Editor’s Note: Gad Levanon is the chief economist at the Burning Glass Institute. He’s the former head of The Conference Board’s Labor Market Institute. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. To many economists and analysts, the US economy has represented a paradox this year. On the one hand, GDP growth has slowed … Read more