Tag Archives: Jobs

First-time claims for unemployment insurance for the week ended May 18 dropped 23,000 to, 340,000 from the highest level since the end of March the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Though residential construction "is keeping the economy on an expansionary path," Moody's Analytics suggests that homebuilders are having a tough time shouldering the burden of growth on their own.

The juice that will fuel the economic recovery is housing, or more specifically, new home sales, Freddie Mac stated in its economic and housing market outlook report for May.

New home sales have seen a slow recovery since reaching a trough in 2011, but the recent pickup demonstrates how underlying economic fundamentals are improving.

In a recent report, Jed Kolko, Trulia's chief economist, provided two reasons to explain the link between employment growth and housing.

After spending the last month approaching record lows, fixed mortgage rates reversed the trend this week. According to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.42 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending May 9, up from last week, when it averaged 3.35 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.83 percent. According to Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist for Freddie Mac, the rise in fixed rates this week was a reaction to April's better than expected employment report.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance for the week ending May 4 dropped 4,000 to 323,000-- once again, the lowest level in more than five years, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected initial claims to increase to 335,000. First-time jobless claims for the week ending April 27 were revised up to 327,000 from the originally reported 324,000.

In the latest in its Transition to "Normal" series, Fannie Mae's Economic and Strategic Research group examines the residential construction sector.

Hiring fell 4.3 percent in March, the same month in which payroll job growth plunged, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Tuesday in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). Data from the report indicated there were 11.2 unemployed construction workers for every available job in March, up from 9.0 in February. By industry, the number of unemployed persons per job opening also increased in the manufacturing and information sectors.

According to NAHB, the number of housing markets showing "sustained improvement" fell to 258 from April's 273.