Jobs

Despite threats, signs from job gains suggest the economic outlook may improve from a modest start to the year. The job gains, however, remain skewed toward Western and some Southern states and metro markets. The threats to the outlook are coming…

Job gains are on a slowing trend through early 2018—except for a strong February—and becoming further concentrated in the West and Southeast. The slowing trend is the result of weakness in certain markets as much as the result of a tight…

Job gains are supporting an outlook for sustained growth in 2018 and raising prospects for slower-growing places across the middle and Northeast part of the country—led by job gains in energy, mining and other goods industries. Although the strongest parts of…

The holiday spending outlook is being supported by a post-hurricane rebound in job gains in most industries except retail—and despite persisting weak pockets across the middle and Northeast parts of the country. An emerging recovery in the energy and mining sector…

The Fall outlook for consumer spending is being bolstered by sustained job gains at a national level—although pockets of weak growth persist through the country’s mid-section and Northeast states. The weak spots—from Kansas and Wyoming to Alaska and West Virginia—remain depressed…

A post-election rally may be the best hope for a near-term outlook that appears relatively weak—modest at best—as the latest jobs data appear to confirm. Of most interest in the jobs data is a slight uptick in the unemployment rate and…