The New York branch of the Federal Reserve, which acts as the US central bank, said Thursday that the so-called Empire State Manufacturing Index It rose to 26.30 points, the highest level since the start of the epidemic, from 17.40 points in March. Experts expected a lesser improving indicator, 19.50 points, for April.
Among other things, the new orders sub-index rose 8 points to 26.9, and the employment sub-index rose 5 points to 13.9. The Empire State Manufacturing Index overall is a good indicator of how the National Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (BMI) is developing, which is calculated by the American Institute of Supply Management (ISM). The Institute of Supply Management (ISM) in the United States Manufacturing PMI (BMI) for March, released in early April, was 64.7 points, the highest level since December 1983 after 60.8 points in February. Meanwhile, manufacturing performance growth in the US Mid-Atlantic region slowed much less than analysts had expected in April. The Federal Reserve (Fed) as the US Federal Reserve Philadelphia branch On Thursday, the manufacturing performance index fell 50.2 from 51.8 in March. Analysts expected a further deterioration of 42 points for the month of April. A value below zero indicates a decrease in manufacturing performance, and a positive value indicates expansion.
The index, which reached an all-time low of 56.6 and 43.1 points in April and May respectively, was already in the positive range of growth in April of this year for the eleventh consecutive month. The new orders sub-index decreased from 50.9 to 36 in April, while the employment index rose from 30.1 in March to 30.8. Firms are more optimistic about the future, as the index reflects expectations for the next six months from 61.6 in March to 66.6 in April. Analysts say the Fed’s data on manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region generally reflects the national trend.
It fell sharply, much more than expected The number of first-time applicants for unemployment benefits In the US last week, another sign that the economic situation is improving. (In short here we wrote.)
The Washington Department of Labor said Thursday that seasonally adjusted data show that the number of first-time job seekers fell to 576,000 in the week ending April 10, down 193,000 from 769,000 the previous week. The number of requests has not been very low since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, with the most recent being a value of less than 256,000 from the week ending March 14 last year. Analysts had expected weaker data, the figure of 700,000.
The number of applications fell below 600,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic and is now below the peak at the time of the 2007-2009 global financial and economic crisis, with 8.7 million jobs lost and 665,000 peaking for the first time in unemployment benefits – the weekly number of applicants. The number of orders has decreased by more than 90 percent from its peak at the time of the pandemic, to 6,867,000 at the end of March last year.
The four-week moving average, which measures the number of assistance requests – helping to filter out one-off temporary effects – fell by 47,000 to 250,683,000 last week, up from 4.9 million a year ago.
Recent data indicates that the US economy is recovering from the pandemic crisis with renewed vigor: consumer spending is rising, manufacturing is getting stronger, and employers are expanding the number of employees. 916,000 new jobs were created in March, the most since August of last year. The unemployment rate fell from 6.2 percent to 6 percent, less than half of the 14.8 percent measured at the height of the epidemic.
The epidemic and measures to reduce it ended a record 113-month increase in employment in March without any transmission. More than 22.3 million jobs were lost in March and April, more than 60 percent of which, 13.5 million jobs, have been returned since. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that employment could return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024.
We also already mentioned that after the 2.7% decline in February, there was an increase of 9.8% in March. Retail turnover In the United States in March. Not only was the monthly growth impressive, it also exceeded expectations, with analysts forecasting 5.9% growth. Excluding auto sales, traffic growth was 8.4% instead of the expected 5%.
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