From the BLS: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary Thirty states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases , 9 states registered rate decreases, and 11 states had no rate change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor … Read More

The MBA reports: Purchase Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 0.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. … The Refinance Index decreased 1.5 … Read More

From the BLS: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary There were 2.7 million job openings on the last business day of January 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The job openings rate rose over the month to … Read More

From Rex Nutting at MarketWatch: Small business optimism falls in Feb., NFIB says An index measuring small-business optimism fell 1.3 points to 88.0 in February, erasing January’s gain, according to a monthly survey released Tuesday by the National Association of … Read More

If you thought Snowmageddon distorted the employment figures in February, just wait until March. (ht JH) The BLS could report a March headline number of 200,000 net payroll jobs, and that could be viewed as a weak report. The March … Read More

Here are two graphs that show the weeks unemployed over the last 40 years. Click on graph for larger image in new window. The first graph shows the number of unemployed in four categories as provided by the BLS: less … Read More

Here are a few more graphs based on the employment report … Employment-Population Ratio The Employment-Population ratio ticked up slightly to 58.5% in February, after plunging since the start of the recession. This is about the same level as in … Read More

ADP reports : Nonfarm private employment decreased 20,000 from January to February 2010 on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the ADP National Employment Report®. The estimated change of employment from December 2009 to January 2010 was revised down, from … Read More

The MBA reports: Mortgage Refinance Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey The Market Composite Index … increased 14.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. … “Mortgage applications rebounded last week, particularly refis, as rates dropped … Read More

With all the talk about the impact of the February snow storms on employment, it is worth remembering that the temporary hiring for Census 2010 will also distort the payroll employment numbers. Luckily the Census Bureau provides a monthly report … Read More