Business Indicators

After having experienced a few quarters of exhilarating economic news, the U.S. economy declared an intermission to strong growth. Sudden changes in oil-market conditions left users scrambling for supplies and reevaluating future availabilities. Geopolitical conditions likely to create new problems remain a concern. Oil prices, forecasted to be in the $30-a-barrel range for … [Read more...] about October 2004: Business Indicators

Continued economic expansion in U.S. and world markets has put Nevada indicators in a favorable light. The Silver State’s latest unemployment rate stands at 4.4 percent, down from 5.7 percent a year ago. It is now at a level thought by many to represent a fully-employed economy. More than 48,000 jobs were created during the past 12 months; job growth was up 4.8 percent in Clark … [Read more...] about September 2004: Business Indicators

U.S. employment, at least as measured by business’ payroll records, revealed weakness in the months after the November 2001 business cycle trough. The most recent data for May 2004 show annual employment growth of 1.0 percent, however. In short, the U.S. employment picture has brightened in 2004. The Nevada employment situation, on the other hand, recovered more quickly than … [Read more...] about August 2004: Business Indicators

With interest rates pushed to some of the lowest levels in recent memory and with federal deficits returning to high levels over the past few years, it was only a matter of time before concern about inflation materialized. The recession and aftermath of September 11th created concern for falling prices, particularly for wealth-holding assets other than stocks; the appropriate … [Read more...] about July 2004: Business Indicators

Prices for bond futures have declined recently, job numbers are up and spending continues unabated – all suggesting economic expansion. Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan recently announced that interest-rate hikes on federal funds should be expected. In short, the evidence points to stronger growth in 2004. Since national economic recovery began in November 2001, many … [Read more...] about June 2004: Business Indicators

The U.S. economy continues to experience the weakest job recovery since World War II. Jobs remain below the last peak level of spring 2001. Jobs increased by only 0.1 percent over the past year. Productivity gains, shifting global manufacturing operations, shortage of raw materials, political uncertainties and rising fuel prices have kept U.S. job growth off its historical … [Read more...] about May 2004: Business Indicators

The U.S. economy, at least as measured by spending and income, shows clear signs of having weathered financial hubris, terrorist attacks, recession and heightened uncertainty about war. Economic expansion is underway. Conditions have not returned to the strong boom of the late 1990s. However, through the first half of 2003, things look better today than in 2001. In short, the … [Read more...] about April 2004: Business Indicators

Productivity growth and continued strength in consumer spending, particularly for big-ticket items such as homes and cars, buoyed spending levels over the past couple of years. Still, the last half of 2003 proved far better than the first half of the year. The national GDP numbers grew robustly, up by more than 4.3 percent on an annual basis from the 3rd quarter of 2002 to the … [Read more...] about March 2004: Business Indicators

Nevada’s economy continues to expand. Job growth equaled 3.6 percent for November 2003 over the same month a year ago. Visitor volume grew at 3.1 percent and gaming revenue was up 1.5 percent. Most noteworthy, taxable-sales growth reached a one-month growth rate of 10.8 percent. Of course, a strong month does not yield a long-run cyclical uptrend, but the news is … [Read more...] about February 2004: Business Indicators

The third-quarter inflation-adjusted rate of growth in aggregate spending moved forward at a brisk rate of more than 2.0 percent above the second quarter (or, at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 8.2 percent), signaling an economy that is gaining steam. Personal consumption, equipment and software purchases, exports and residential-fixed investment were cited as … [Read more...] about January 2004: Business Indicators

The U.S. and Nevada economies continue to grow healthier. Nevada’s recent level of employment stands 2.1 percent above the year-ago level. Though momentum is underway, Nevada’s employment growth rate has slipped from the levels experienced in the late ’90s. Still, the Silver State’s job-creation performance remains one of the best among the states. In comparison, U.S. … [Read more...] about December 2003: Business Indicators

After the 2001 recession – a short-lived and mild one by comparison with historical downturns – the U.S. economy has not followed a usual recovery pattern of rapid growth in the months after hitting bottom. With strong productivity growth limiting the need for workers, it is not surprising that the number of jobs has remained below the peak reached in early 2001. With the … [Read more...] about November 2003: Business Indicators

Having bottomed out, the Nevada and U.S. economies are now expanding. Indeed, after some period of indecision, the arbitrators of the dating of U.S. business cycles declared that the recession ended in November 2002. The expansion that followed has, however, been modest by historical standards. The U.S. expansion in 2002 and 2003 has been so weak that concerns have … [Read more...] about October 2003: Business Indicators

The National Bureau of Economic Research, the official arbitrator on dating the business cycle, has declared that the recession that began in March 2001 is over. The U.S. economy is now expanding. Nonetheless, the long wait to make this declaration reveals that the current expansion is weak. Overall, the economy declined from March 2001 to November 2001. After reaching the … [Read more...] about September 2003: Business Indicators

Economic activity following the Gulf War in 1991 moved forward without marked improvement in employment, giving rise to the term "jobless recovery". So far, employment growth in 2003 seems stuck, leading one to surmise that the next recovery, whether already afoot or to occur in the future, might also be a "jobless recovery". U.S. employment in May remained essentially … [Read more...] about August 2003: Business Indicators