Economy

Outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen holds a news conference after a two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, U.S. December 13, 2017. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters The U.S. could return to full employment in 2022 if President Joe Biden‘s $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package is passed, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on

Wyomissing Restaurant and Bakery Food Specialist Megan Catarious, prepares a crepe at the crepe bar at the Wyomissing Restaurant and Bakery on Penn Ave in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, January 22, 2021. Ben Hasty | MediaNews Group | Reading Eagle via Getty Images January’s employment picture appears to have improved over December, but how much so depends

Job growth returned to the U.S. in January, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by 49,000 while the unemployment rate fell to 6.3%, the Labor Department said Friday in the first employment report of the Biden administration. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for growth of 50,000 and the unemployment to hold unchanged at 6.7%.

Cars line up to pick up food boxes at the Athens County Fairgrounds in Athens, Ohio on Dec. 19, 2020. BRAD LEE | AFP | Getty Images Long-term unemployment is edging toward a historical peak, almost a year into the pandemic-fueled downturn. Workers are deemed to be “long-term unemployed” when their jobless spell is longer

Weekly jobless claims came in a bit less than expected last week though U.S. employment gains remain sluggish. First-time claims for unemployment insurance totaled 779,000 for the week ended Jan. 30, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That was below the 830,000 estimate from economists surveyed by Dow Jones. This was the lowest week for claims

A house for sale on December 17, 2020 in Scituate, Massachusetts. Matt Stone | MediaNews Group | Getty Images Mortgage rates fell for the first time in nearly a month, and that lit a fire under current borrowers who may have thought they missed the boat on refinancing their loans. Applications to refinance jumped 11%

A month after reporting the first loss since April, the employment picture bounced back in January as companies added 174,000 new jobs, according to a report Wednesday from payroll processing firm ADP. The gain beat the 50,000 estimate from economists surveyed by Dow Jones and improved on the 78,000 December decline, a number that was

Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic said Monday that he’s not worried about the U.S. economy overheating, though he does think growth could happen faster than many expect. In an estimate well ahead of most of his colleagues, Bostic, a voting member of the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee, recently drew attention for saying that

Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan in a CNBC interview Tuesday backed more spending across a variety of fronts as the economy tries to shake off the Covid-19 pandemic effects. President Joe Biden has proposed spending $1.9 trillion to provide more cash payouts and enhanced unemployment benefits to Americans, as well as a minimum wage

A worker uses a hoist to assemble a car seat at the Lear Corp. manufacturing facility in Hammond, Indiana. Jim Young | Bloomberg | Getty Images U.S. economic growth will recover “rapidly” and the labor market will return to full strength quicker than expected thanks to the vaccine rollout and a barrage of legislation enacted

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies before the Senate Banking Committee hearing on “The Quarterly CARES Act Report to Congress” on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 1, 2020. Susan Walsh | Pool | Reuters Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has a few nerves to quell among market participants wondering when the central banks will start

Billionaire restaurateur and casino operator Tilman Fertitta told CNBC on Tuesday he expects strong consumer spending to fuel the U.S. economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. “The consumer is coming back. I’m telling you, where we can do business, we are doing business,” the Landry’s chairman and chief executive said on “Power Lunch.” “This is

This is a comparison of Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee statement with the one issued after the Fed’s previous policy-making meeting on Dec. 16. Text removed from the December statement is in red with a horizontal line through the middle. Text appearing for the first time in the new statement is in red and underlined. Black text appears in

A woman walks past a closed retail store for lease in the midtown area of Manhattan on January 25, 2021 in New York City. Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images The number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits for the first time rose less than expected last week as the Biden administration took

After a year in which a pandemic and politics posed challenges unlike the U.S. has seen in generations, the economy closed in fairly good shape. Gross domestic product, or the sum of all goods and services, increased at a 4.0% pace in the fourth quarter, slightly below the 4.3% expectation from economists surveyed by Dow

A house’s real estate for sale sign shows the home as being “Under Contract” in Washington, DC, November 19, 2020. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images Homebuyers signed fewer contracts to buy existing homes in December, as record high prices and record low supply stood in the way of strong demand. The pending home

A Federal Reserve police officer walks past the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C., U.S. Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Federal Reserve kept its foot to the floor Wednesday in terms of the help it is providing for an economy that central bank officials say has slowed down. Consistent

Some market pros see the frenzied short squeezes in Gamestop and other stocks as signs of a bubble brewing, but the Federal Reserve doesn’t seem to and for that reason investors expect asset prices could continue to rise. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, at his post meeting briefing Wednesday, was asked about the potential of Fed