With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration set to review Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine this week for emergency use authorization and Moderna’s vaccine next week, we have passed the “if” phase of questions around a COVID-19 vaccine and are now in the midst of determining the “when and how” of vaccine distribution. … READ MORE >
Blog
Container crunch pushes shipping rates to record highs
Surging demand for Asian imports and a shortage of containers are congesting U.S. ports, causing headaches for companies importing from Asia, skyrocketing shipping rates and surging purchase prices for containers. … READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Estimating unemployment during the pandemic
Friday’s headline U3 unemployment rate of 6.7% is probably an undercount of the number of out-of-work people, not by design, but by the peculiar circumstances of the pandemic. … READ MORE >
U.S. November employment report: Winter is coming
The recall of workers and job creation continued to slow in November to 245,000, while the unemployment rate declined to 6.7%, just ahead of what is likely to be a pandemic-induced drag on domestic labor market conditions over the next few months. … READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: ISM service sector index growth continues
The November ISM Non-Manufacturing Index eased to 55.9, which is below the six-month average of 57.1, indicating solid growth in the service sector even as the pandemic rages. … READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Airport traffic surges over Thanksgiving
Amid spiking coronavirus cases, airports had a surge in travelers over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The Transportation Security Administration reported that more than 1 million passengers were processed through its checkpoints on the busy travel days of Wednesday and Sunday. … READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Manufacturing expansion continues in November
U.S. manufacturing activity continued its expansion in November, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index. The index registered 57.5 in November, its seventh straight month of expansion, but was 1.8 points below the 59.3 reading in October. … READ MORE >
Coronavirus update: Ethical aspects of vaccinations
The successful release of one or more vaccines presents society with the issue of who gets vaccinated first and then the succeeding phases of distribution. This will challenge our society to the core. … READ MORE >
November jobs preview: Employment-to-population ratio and the likelihood of a double-dip recession
We expect that improvement in the labor market will continue to slow to near 370,000 on the month with the unemployment rate falling to 6.8% when the Labor Department releases its jobs data on Friday. … READ MORE >
RSM US Manufacturing Outlook Index indicates tempered growth
The RSM US Manufacturing Outlook Index is starting to show cracks in the optimism of the past few months as the economy decelerates and the pandemic intensifies. … READ MORE >