U.S. June Nonfarm Payrolls Decline 62k, Unemployment Rate Remains at 5.5%
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
U.S. nonfarm payrolls declined for the sixth straight month, falling in line with expectations by a total of 62k jobs in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday. May's jobs figure was revised to a loss of 62k jobs from an initially reported loss of 49k jobs.
The unemployment rate remained at 5.5% following the half-percentage point surge in the rate last month.
Nonfarm payrolls were expected to fall by 60k jobs in the month, with expectations ranging from -20k to -130k jobs. Also, economists expected the unemployment rate to have overshot last month and to come back down slightly to 5.4%.
So far this year, the U.S. economy has shed 438k jobs.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% from May, while the average weekly hours worked remained at 33.7.
Total private jobs lost 91k in the month, with the goods-producing sector losing 69k, construction falling by 43k, and manufacturing losing 33k. The business services sector lost 51k jobs, while the financial sector also saw a loss of 10k.
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Labels: mortgage company, mortgage news
Rates on 30-year mortgages jump to 6.42 percent
Saturday, July 5, 2008
WASHINGTON - Rates on 30-year mortgages kept surging this week, rising to the highest level in nearly nine months, reflecting more concerns about what the Federal Reserve will do to combat a growing inflation threat.
Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported Thursday that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.42 percent this week. That was up sharply from 6.32 percent last week.
It was the highest level for 30-year mortgages since they averaged 6.42 percent for the week of Sept. 27 and marked the fourth straight week that they have been above 6 percent.
Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac, said the increased concerns about inflation were fueled by reports in the past week showing that both consumer prices and wholesale prices rose by significant amounts in May. This spurred further increases in the futures market where investors place bets on future Fed actions. That market is pointing to a Fed rate increase in September.
In a speech earlier this month, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled deepening worries about inflation and said the Fed would "strongly resist" any tendency for Americans' expectations about price increases to become unsettled.
From last September through April, the central bank aggressively cut rates to try to keep the economy from falling into a recession, but now the Fed's focus has shifted to worries about inflation.
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Labels: mortgage company, mortgage news, mortgage rates