The U.S. economy grew at a solid rate in the first three months of the year, but much of that gain was based on temporary factors that likely will fade, leaving growth much slower in the current quarter.
American consumers felt more confident this month, shrugging off a rocky stock market and heightened trade tensions between the United States and China.
Friday's jobs report from the Labor Department showed that solid economic growth is still encouraging strong hiring nearly a decade into the economy's recovery from the Great Recession.
With the strong gain in the first quarter, productivity over the past year has grown by 2.4%, the best four-quarter gain since a 2.7% rise in 2010.
The March gain was a marked improvement after three months of lackluster readings in the key segment of the economy.
The advance in the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic health, marked the strongest first quarter growth rate since 2015.
The Labor Department on Thursday said claims for jobless aid fell by 5,000 last week, to 192,000, lowest since September 1969.
The Central Indiana Community Foundation’s new five-year plan focuses on making Indianapolis a more inclusive city, a goal it hopes to achieve partly by training 5,000 community leaders and residents about institutional racism.
The employment figures reported Friday by the government suggest that February’s anemic job growth figure was merely a temporary blip and that businesses are confident the economy remains on a firm footing.
Applications are a proxy for layoffs, so the drop to such a low number indicates that companies are cutting very few workers.
The spending figures, which reflected weaker sales of new autos, signal first-quarter growth faces additional headwinds, though surveys show consumers remain generally upbeat.
Consumer spending, business investment, government spending and housing all came in lower than first thought.
The president’s comments dim hopes that round-the-clock trade negotiations between the world’s two biggest economies could lead to them removing the roughly $360 billion in tariffs they’ve imposed on each other’s imports.
A surprisingly strong burst of job growth over the past year has led many economists to wonder: Where are all the workers coming from?
A surprisingly strong burst of job growth over the past year has led many economists to wonder: Where are all the workers coming from?
The current expansion, now in its 10th year, is the second longest in U.S. history. But it has featured the weakest annual growth rates of any recovery in the post-World War II period.
In delivering the Fed’s semiannual monetary report to Congress, Powell said the Fed will be “patient” in determining when to boost its benchmark policy rate in light of the various “crosscurrents and conflicting signals.”
Roughly half of the member economists in the National Association for Business Economics say they think the U.S. economy will slip into recession by the end of next year.
U.S. employers shrugged off last month's partial government shutdown and engaged in a burst of hiring in January.
S&P Global Ratings estimates that the economy lost $6 billion because of the government closure—a sizable but relatively negligible sum in a $19 trillion-plus U.S. economy.
