December 2014

November Industrial Production Jumps By 1.3%

Industrial production is on fire with a 1.3% November gain.  Even better, the Federal Reserve Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report shows upward revisions all the way back to June 2014.   October was revised from a -1.0% decline to 0.1% growth.  This month gains were across the board,, another good sign for the economy.

November Retail Sales Solid on Autos, Up 0.7%

The November 2014 Retail Sales report shows retail sales increased 0.7% for the month.  This is when gasoline prices have plunged, pulling down retail gas sales.  October retail sales were revised upward by 0.2 percentage points to a 0.5% increase.  Retail sales have now increased 5.1% from a year ago.  November's increase was due to auto sales, although other retail sales categories increased.

There Were 1.9 Persons Per Job Opening in October 2014

The BLS JOLTS report, or Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey shows there are 1.9 official unemployed per job opening for October 2014.  Job openings were around 4.8 million.   Job openings returned to pre-recession levels while hires has increased 33% since June 2009.  In just the private sector job openings have also recovered to precession levels while private hires have increased 40% from their 2009 lows.

Foreclosure Pipelines Still Over 4 Years as Average Time In Foreclosure Rises to Record 1024 Days

According to the Mortgage Monitor for October (pdf) from Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS, formerly LPS Data & Analytics), there were 857,824 home mortgages, or 1.69% of all mortgages outstanding, remaining in the foreclosure process at the end of October, which was down from 892,796, or 1.76% of all active loans that were in foreclosure at the end of September, and down from 2.54% of all mortgages that were in foreclosure in October of last year. 

November Employment Report Household Survey Shows Static Statistics

The BLS Npvember current population survey unemployment report shows almost a static situation from last month, unlike the reported payroll gains portion of the jobs report.  The unemployment rate did not change and is still 5.8%.  The labor participation rate also did not change from the very low, 62.8%.  Even the unemployed's increase of 115,000 is statistically insignificant.

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