Key Economic Indicators – July 22, 2019

  • Advance estimates of retail and food services sales increased 0.4% in June, the same increase as in the previous month. Sales were up 3.4% from a year ago.
  • Total manufacturing and trade sales were up 0.2% in May, and inventories were up 0.3% in May.
  • Total Industrial production held steady in June, following a 0.4% increase in the previous month. The index of industrial production in June was 1.3% above its year-ago level. The rate of capacity utilization for total industry was 77.9%, 1.9 percentage points below its 1972-2018 average, and 0.7 percentage point below its level in June 2018.
  • Finance and insurance, retail trade, and health care and social assistance were the leading contributors to the increase in U.S. economic growth in the firsquarter of 2019, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. 16 of 22 industry groups contributed to the overall 3.1% increase in real GDP in the first quarter. For the finance and insurance industry group, real value added increased 9.5% in the first quarter, after decreasing 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Retail trade increased 11.9% in the first quarter, after decreasing 2.5% in the fourth. Health care and social assistance increased 6.2%, after increasing 2.4%. This was the largest increase since the fourth quarter of 2008.
  • Median weekly earnings of the nation’s 117.6 million full-time wage and salary workers were $908 in the second quarter of 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This was 3.7% higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 1.8% in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period.
  • Unemployment rates were lower in June in 6 states and stable in 44 states and the District of Columbia, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Three states had jobless rate decreases from a year earlier and 47 states and the District had little or no change.
  • Nonfarm payroll employment increased in 4 states in June 2019 and was essentially unchanged in 46 states and the District of Columbia. Over the year, 28 states added nonfarm payroll jobs and 22 states and the District were essentially unchanged.
  • The import price index decreased 0.9% in June, after holding steady in the previous month. The export price index decreased 0.7%, following a 0.2% decrease in the previous month. The import price index decreased 2.0% from June 2018, while export prices decreased 1.6%.

 

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