Canadian Economy Slowed At End Of Last Year

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Meanwhile, here are the major economic headlines from the last week:

• Economic growth in Canada slowed to 1.6 percent in the final quarter of 2022 as the impact of higher interest rates took hold. In fact, the growth reading was nearly half of what it was in the third quarter. For all of 2022, however, the Canadian economy expanded 3.8 percent, eclipsing the Bank of Canada’s prediction for 3.6 percent growth. Read the full report here.
• The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index for the United States fell to 47.4 in January from 48.4 in December and is at a new, post-pandemic low. New orders declined sharply while production and exports also were down. Hiring expanded slightly for the second month in a row, however. Read the full report here. In related news: according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, manufacturing activity in the Texas region was slower in January.
• New orders for U.S. manufactured goods increased 1.8 percent in December to $552.5 billion. Shipments fell 0.7 percent while unfilled orders rose 1.3 percent. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 6.07, up from 6.01 in November. Inventories rose 0.4 percent to $807.8 billion while the inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.49, up from 1.47 in November. Read more here.
• The U.S. economy added 517,000 jobs in January, a reading that was more than twice what Wall Street analysts had expected. The manufacturing industry added 19,000 jobs last month. In January, the country’s unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent, its lowest level since 1969. January’s jobs gain was higher than the average monthly gain of 401,000 for 2022, and revisions by the U.S. Department of Labor showed the U.S. economy added a half million more jobs in 2022 than previously estimated. In related news: there were 11 million jobs (including 803,000 in manufacturing) unfilled in the United States in December 2022 and the number of Americans who filed for federal unemployment benefits continued to fall. Read more about those reports here and here.
• U.S. labor productivity  improved three percent from the third to the fourth quarter of 2022. Output was up 3.5 percent and hours worked increased 0.5 percent. From the same quarter in 2021, nonfarm business sector labor productivity fell 1.5 percent. Year-over-year, output was up 0.8 percent and hours worked rose 2.3 percent.
• In other economic news: the Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence in the United States fell to 107.1 in January from 109.0 in December while U.S. construction spending declined 0.7 percent between November 2022 and December 2022, but was up 7.1 percent from December 2021 to December 2022.