ET: Americans are increasingly foregoing unemployment benefits as the job market remains strong and the economy shows signs of acceleration.
The initial claims of jobless benefits dropped to 192,000 in the week ending April 13, down 5,000 from the week before (pdf). That means less than 59 out of 100,000 Americans applied for the benefits—a record low. Economists had forecast claims would rise to 205,000 in the latest week.
Meanwhile, retail sales in March increased by 1.6 percent—the most in 18 months—as households boosted purchases of motor vehicles and a range of other goods, the latest indication that economic growth picked up in the first quarter.
Fears of an abrupt slowdown in activity escalated at the turn of the year after a batch of weak economic reports. But those concerns have dissipated in recent weeks amid fairly upbeat data on trade, inventories, and construction spending that have suggested growth last quarter could actually be better than the moderate pace logged in the final three months of 2018.
“Supported by strong labor market conditions and improving wage growth, household spending appears well positioned to increase in the coming months,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors in Kalamazoo, Michigan. “Fears about the softening in the economy were overblown.”
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales would accelerate 0.9 percent in March. Retail sales in March advanced 3.6 percent from a year ago. more here
Don’t fret, Bernie and AOC to the rescue…
The Demonrats will be tearing their hair and gnashing their teeth.
All the efforts of Obola, Pelosi, and Reid (with a treasonous assist from Gruber) have come to naught.
Now, if we could just infiltrate a few Americans into the Republican Party …
izlamo delenda est …
How will the dems run on this fact?
More people employed? Time to raise taxes and increase bennies to those who’ve been “left behind”.
Engelburka – Dems don’t run on facts! They’re frantically trying to tear down everything American stands for. They would like nothing better than a recession and in fact have state just that so they can get ahead! They have NOTHING positive to run on. Not ONE of them voted to lower your taxes! In the arena of Capitalism they simply can’t compete. The only way they can win is by cheating on a massive scale and dragging everybody else down to their level of SUCK by inventing fake “problems” that need to be solved and fake “enemies” who need to be defeated! Every Dictator down though history has used the same, exact formula!
Read yer History.
Oh yeah… they don’t want that either!
Wonder why????
Engelburka – I should have worded that better as my response was not pointed at you.
When I say “read yer history”, I did not mean you personally 🙂
TRF – History? I should’ve clarified “malleable facts” for their target audience. My sarcasm doesn’t always read well.
No apology necessary 🙂 I took your point as intended. 👍🏻
More BS…. over 5000 stores have closed so far this year making it more than all the store closings last year. Other tech companies are going bankrupt and more and more people jut gave up looking for work. It’s all smoke and mirrors….
Will the “learned “economists”” learn a lesson from this???
Will the universities begin a self reflection on how their professors could be so inaccurate in their teachings???
As is so often my task I will close out the thread by being the last to post and not be read.
Rightisright APRIL 20, 2019 AT 12:44 PM
More BS….
Yes there are closings and vacant commercial properties. If you can’t make it in this economy you picked the wrong venue or you are personally responsible for being inept in your business model.
Let’s start a luxury retail outlet in “Water Tower Place in Chicago! Look at the foot traffic that we’ll see this summer when all the tourists are afrid to leave their hotels and the cops aren’t around for the “free stuff weekends!