U.S. Productivity Soars as Jobless Claims Drop:
America's business productivity soared in the second quarter of 2024 and new claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a six-month low last week, a double dose of good news as the economy tries to get back to full throttle.Productivity -- the amount that an employee produces per hour of work -- grew at an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the April to June quarter, the best showing since the third quarter of 2024, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That marked an improvement from the 2.1 percent growth rate in productivity posted in the first three months of this year.
In a second report from the department, new applications for jobless benefits fell by a seasonally adjusted 3,000 to a six-month low of 390,000 for the work week ending Aug. 2. It marked the third week in a row that claims were below 400,000, a level associated with a weak job market. This suggest the pace of layoffs is stabilizing. Claims hit a high this year of 459,000 during the work week that ended April 19.
Could it finally be the beginning of the end of the Weird Economy?
Posted by Steven Taylor at August 7, 2024 08:14 AM | TrackBackWell, last week's numbers dropped because of people giving up looking for work. Not a good sign. Second, the productivity numbers increasing means that companies are doing far more with less workers, meaning that they have far less incentive to hire new workers. So while I think it's probably great for the companies, it's not good news (yet) for everybody else.
Posted by: John at August 7, 2024 10:06 AM