9/17: MetroIntelligence Economic Update by P. DUFFY

MetroIntelligence Economic Update by P. DUFFY

Initial unemployment claims rebound 20,000 to 332,000

In the week ending September 11, initial unemployment claims were 332,000, an increase of 20,000 from the previous week’s revised level. Continued claims during the week ending September 4 were 2,665,000, a decrease of 187,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending August 28 was 12,106,727, an increase of 178,937 from the previous week.

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

Retail sales rebound 0.7 percent in August, up 15.1 percent year-on-year

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for August 2021 were $618.7 billion, an increase of 0.7 percent from the previous month, and 15.1 percent above August 2020. Total sales for the June 2021 through August 2021 period were up 16.3 percent from the same period a year ago.

https://www.census.gov/retail/marts/www/marts_current.pdf

Industrial production up 0.4 in August and 5.9 percent year-on-year

Industrial production increased 0.4 percent in August after moving up 0.8 percent in July. Late-month shutdowns related to Hurricane Ida held down the gain in industrial production by an estimated 0.3 percentage point. At 101.6 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in August was 5.9 percent above its year-earlier level and 0.3 percent above its pre-pandemic (February 2020) level. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector rose 0.2 percentage point in August to 76.4 percent, a rate that is 3.2 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2020) average.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/Current/default.htm