Kendra Edwards Realty: 2012

In the News

March 14, 2012

There was good news on the employment front last week, as non-farm employment rose by 227,000 in February, and the unemployment rate continued sitting at 8.3 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week. The total number of unemployed persons was at 12.8 million in February, essentially unchanged from January.

Also seeing little change from January was the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over), at 5.4 million in February, which accounted for 42.6 percent of the unemployed. The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (involuntarily working part-time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job) also was basically unchanged from January, sitting at 8.1 million in February.

Major contributors to February's job gains included professional and business services, which added 82,000, health care and social assistance employment, which rose by 61,000, leisure and hospitality, which increased by 44,000, and manufacturing employment, which rose by 31,000.

Looking at more recent employment news, first-time claims for unemployment insurance filed during the week ending March 3 reached 362,000, representing a gain of 8,000 claims from the previous week's total of 354,000, the Employment and Training Administration reported last week. The total population of unemployed workers in the week ending Feb. 25, increased by 10,000 people to 3,416,000, the Administration also reported.

Meanwhile, consumer credit reached an annual rate of 8.5 percent in January, the Federal Reserve reported last week. Non-revolving debt, such as car and student loans, saw the largest gain, a $20.7 billion boost, which was the largest increase those types of loans have seen since November 2001.

Non-revolving debt's increase was at a sizable annual rate of 14.74 percent, pushing it to $1.71 trillion, up from December's $1.69 trillion. Conversely, revolving credit, such as credit cards, dropped at an annual rate of 4.5 percent, sliding down to $800.9 billion, down from $803.8 billion in December.

New orders for manufactured goods placed in January dropped by $4.8 billion (1 percent) to $462.6 billion, after a 1.4 percent gain in December, the Census Bureau reported last week. Shipments of manufactured goods continued an eight straight monthly gain, rising by $4.1 billion (0.9 percent) to $463.6 billion, and unfilled orders, which have increased in 21 of the last 22 months, ratcheted up by $5.4 billion (0.6 percent) to $917.9 billion.

Inventories, which saw gains in 27 of the past 28 months, gained $3.9 billion (0.6 percent) in January to $614.7 billion. This was at the highest level since the series was published in 1992, and followed a 0.2 percent December increase. The inventories-to-shipments ratio for January was 1.33, unchanged from December.

This week we can expect:

Monday — February Treasury Department budget.
Tuesday — February retail sales data from the Census Bureau; January business inventories from the Census Bureau.
Wednesday — February export and import prices from the Census Bureau.
Thursday — First time jobless claims data for the week ending March 10 from the Employment and Training Administration; February producer price index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Friday — February consumer price index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics; February industrial production and capacity utilization from the Federal Reserve.

Thanks,

Jenay Bowen

Senior Loan Officer- Certified FHA Underwriter

Nmls#207433

Office (972) 840-3388

Fax (972) 497-6496

Email: jbowen@servicefirstmtg.com

Apply now at www.servicefirstonline.com

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