California, New York, Florida, Texas and Georgia processed more than 2 million initial claims for unemployment benefits since the outbreak of the coronavirus in March. … READ MORE >
Economics
Initial jobless claims: Mass unemployment continues to rise
First-time jobless claims for the week ending May 16 increased by 2.438 million to bring the total number of Americans who have filed for unemployment benefits to 38.9 million during the past nine weeks. … READ MORE >
Is brick and mortar dead? This time, we’re talking about office buildings.
As many middle market companies have shown that they can shift from a traditional brick-and-mortar setting to a virtual one, office building tenants, and landlords, are rethinking the need for offices in the future — and the related fixed costs they bring. … READ MORE >
U.S. manufacturing sector hit hard by COVID-19, new RSM data shows
The recession in the U.S. manufacturing sector that began in the second half of 2019 has been sharply exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, new proprietary data from RSM shows. Significantly more middle market manufacturers reported losses to U.S. revenue and greater disruptions to operations and their supply chains than the … … READ MORE >
Modeling the spread of the coronavirus: Another difficult milestone
Our projections for the spread of the disease are for total U.S. cases to approach 1.5 million by the end of the week. Based on those projections, and given the current mortality rate of 6.0%, we expect the U.S. death toll to approach 90,000 by the end of the week. … READ MORE >
U.S. retail sales: April really was the cruelest month
Americans continued to shelter in place during April, resulting in a 16.4% decline in top-line retail sales. While April will most likely prove to be the nadir in U.S. retail sales, we are not expecting a meaningful near-term rebound because of the significant dislocation in the labor market and clearly diminished income horizons. … READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims, state by state: 11 now have a million or more claims since coronavirus outbreak
Expect the trend in cumulative claims to remain high as several states continue to work through the backlog of claims and as declining household income and consumer spending prompt more businesses to reduce staff. … READ MORE >
Elevated first-time and continuing jobless claims show mounting stress in the labor market
Stress in the domestic labor market continued to intensify as 2.98 million individuals filed first-time jobless claims for the week ending May 9, bringing the total to 36 million during the coronavirus pandemic. Those filing continuing claims for the week ending May 2 jumped to 22.83 million. … READ MORE >
April U.S. Consumer Price Index: Another whiff of pandemic-caused deflation
The 0.8% decline in the Consumer Price Index in April, announced on Tuesday, should serve as a cautionary tale to those espousing dead dogma around risks to inflation. … READ MORE >
A time to reflect on the reopening of state economies
There is an undeniable and understandable rush to reopen economies. But as the coronavirus continues to spread, it is also undeniable that decisions made in May will reverberate for years to come. … READ MORE >