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The number of U.S. residents living in poverty edged up to 46.5 million last year, the latest sign that an economic recovery marked by a stock market boom has not trickled down to ordinary Americans. The figures from the Census Bureau on Tuesday highlighted the lingering scars from the 2007-2009 recession and added fresh fuel to debates over government austerity and widening income inequality. It could also renew calls to raise the minimum wage. Although the number of people in poverty went up from 46.2 million in 2011, the national poverty rate was unchanged at 15 percent, the annual report...

Aleo Solar AG, a German solar-module manufacturer that has its U.S. headquarters in Denver, said it will withdraw from the United States immediately. ... the US operation had failed to meet recent sales targets and was not operating profitably

This is the first consecutive monthly drop in 14 months and the largest miss vs expectations on record. Printing at 76.8 (against an expectation of 82.0), this is the lowest in 5 months and points to the picture we have been painting of a consumer increasingly affected by rising rates and soaring gas prices amid stagnant incomes. As Citi notes below, this is the exact same pattern we have seen play out in the last 2 cycles and suggest significant downside risk to US equities. The economic outlook sub-index collapsed to its lowest since January. Biggest miss on the headline...

Consumer sentiment in the U.S. has deteriorated by much more than anticipated in the month of September, according to a report released by Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan on Friday. The report said the preliminary reading on the consumer sentiment index for September came in at 76.8, down from August's final reading of 82.1. Economists had expected the index to edge down to 82.0. With the much bigger than expected decrease, the consumer sentiment index fell to its lowest level since hitting 76.4 in April. Reuters said survey director Richard Curtin attributed the decline to "growing concerns that...

The number of new U.S. jobless claims fell sharply last week but much of the decline appeared due to technical problems in claims processing, clouding the last major reading of labor market health before a Federal Reserve meeting. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 292,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was the lowest level of claims since 2006, confounding analysts' expectations for a mild increase. But a department analyst said the majority of the decline appeared to be because two states were upgrading their computer systems and did not process all the...

Reporting on the latest unemployment reports by the U.S. government, ABCNews's Facebook page curiously left out the most newsworthy statistic: 63.2 percent. That's where the labor force participation rate stands right now. [see screen capture below the page break] It's the lowest it's been since 1978. But here's how ABCNews's social media editors teased Facebook visitors: The U.S. economy added 169,000 jobs in August -- a bit weaker than economists expected. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 7.3%: http://abcn.ws/17JQof4 The linked September 6 story, by Susanna Kim, noted that the labor force participation rate has been steadily declining on President...

U.S. economic growth unexpectedly accelerated in the second quarter, laying a firmer foundation for the rest of the year that could bring the Federal Reserve a step closer to cutting back its monetary stimulus. Gross domestic product grew at a 1.7 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday, stepping up from the first-quarter's downwardly revised 1.1 percent expansion pace.

Illinois' $97 billion pension problem isn't doing any favors for Chicago. Moody's Investors Service late Wednesday downgraded the city's debt rating from Aa3 to A3 because of the city's "very large and growing" pension liability.

Unemployment rates rose in 28 U.S. states last month, partly because more Americans started looking for work and not all of them found jobs. … Nationally, the unemployment rate remained 7.6 percent in June, even though employers added 195,000 jobs. …

The Department of Labor reported today that: In the week ending July 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 334,000, a decrease of 24,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 358,000. That figure was on a seasonally adjusted basis. If we look at the non seasonally (NSA) adjusted data, initial jobless claims (purple) rose 25,350 from 383,360 to 408,710. ijccc071813 Continuing claims rose 333,800. cjc071813 Consumer confidence? It fell from -27.3 to -28.4. Notice that it has not been above 0 since the recession of 2001. bcc071813 Summertime blues indeed.

Farewell "Housing Recovery" - Housing Starts Miss Most Since January 2007, Permits Have Biggest Miss In History In all the noise surrounding Bernanke's rehash of statements made countless times before, today's only relevant data point - June housing starts and permits - was largely ignored. And one can see why: printing at 836K, the starts number was the lowest since August 2012, the second largest sequential drop (down from 928K in May) since 2011 and the biggest miss to expectations of 957K since January 2007!

The number of Americans applying for first-time unemployment benefits rose sharply last week to 360,000, an increase of 16,000 and much higher than the number analysts were expecting, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S expected, on average, claims for the seven days between June 30 and July 6 to fall to 340,000 below the previous week's revised figure of 344,000. By comparison, there were 363,000 first-time claims filed during the comparable week last year (seasonally adjusted). Although claims spiked, Labor Department officials and economists caution that one should not read too much into any...

only 47% of Americans have a full-time job and those who don't are finding it increasingly out of reach. Of the 144 million Americans employed last month, only 116 million were working full-time. Friday's report showed that 58.7% of the civilian adult population of 245 million was working last month. Only 47% of Americans, however, had a full-time job. ... In June, the number of Americans who wanted to work full-time, but were forced into part-time jobs because of the economy, jumped 352,000 to over eight million.

Initial jobless claims hit 354,000. Consensus was for 340,000, according to Bloomberg. Last week had declined to 334,000. The 4-week moving average was 348,250, an increase of 2,500 from the previous week's revised average of 345,750. Mohamed El-Erian wrote in this space yesterday that for the foreseeable future, prints like this will be watched with greater scrutiny to see if the Fed's sunny economic projections are correct.

(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, but not enough to signal a material shift from the recent pace of moderate job growth. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 18,000 to a seasonally adjusted 354,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 2,000 more applications received than previously reported.

With healthcare costs continually on the rise — a situation compounded by ObamaCare’s new taxes and regulations — employers are looking for every means possible to keep those costs down. The healthcare law requires them to offer coverage to all full-time employees and their dependent children aged 25 and younger. The one person whose coverage it does not mandate, however, is the employee’s spouse; spousal coverage, therefore, is increasingly on employers’ chopping blocks. According to MarketWatch, since the passage of ObamaCare, companies have instituted various measures designed to discourage, if not outright exclude, individuals from obtaining health coverage via their...

The U.S. Payroll to Population employment rate (P2P), as measured by Gallup, worsened in May, dropping to 43.9%, from 44.5% in April. P2P is also down from May 2012, when it was 44.4%. ... Gallup's P2P metric is an estimate of the percentage of the U.S. adult population aged 18 and older who are employed full time by an employer for at least 30 hours per week. P2P is not seasonally adjusted.

<p>The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, pointing to moderate job growth despite slowing economic activity.</p> <p>Initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 346,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 3,000 more applications received than previously reported.</p>

Traders confused: is the job market improving, or not? Markets were volatile again today, this time on signs that the jobs market may not be as strong as some hoped. A report on private sector employment by ADP was weaker than expected, as was an employment gauge released as part of a survey of purchasing managers in the services industry. That is causing some to consider lowering their estimates for Friday's critical May jobs report. This is confusing, because Fed officials have been talking about tapering their purchases of bonds as the job market improves. So which is it? To...

An economic forecast says the country’s expected “Great Recovery” hasn’t materialized and the economy’s fallen short of even normal growth. The Los Angeles Times reports the gloomy picture appears in the quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast released Wednesday. It says that real gross domestic product growth – the inflation-adjusted value of goods and services produced – is well below the 3percent growth trend of past recoveries. The forecast says the country isn’t creating enough good jobs. However, the forecast also says a housing market recovery should boost the GDP over the next two years and bring down unemployment, falling to 6.9...