U.S. Employers Add Jobs While Canadian Businesses Shed Them

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

• New orders for U.S. manufactured goods rose $13.4 billion, or 2.3 percent, in June to $592 billion. Shipments increased 0.1 percent while unfilled orders were up 1.8 percent to $1.325 trillion. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 6.74, up from 6.64 in May. Inventories were virtually unchanged at $853.1 billion while the inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.49, a reading that also was largely unchanged from May.
• The Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the United States came in at 46.4 percent in July, up from 46.0 in June. Unfortunately, at 47.3 percent, new orders remained in contraction territory, as did the employment reading, which fell to 44.4 percent, down 3.7 percentage points from the month before. The production index rose to 48.3 percent from June’s figure of 46.7 percent, however.
• The S&P Global Canada PMI rose to 49.6 in July from 48.8 in June even though the new orders index showed contraction for the fifth month. New export orders expanded for the first time in 14 months, however, due to improved demand from the United States. Output also expanded, rising to 51.1 from 49.7 in June, but the S&P’s reading for employment declined. To get more information, read the full report here.
• The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported Texas’ manufacturing sector contracted in July even though the bank’s production index, a key measure of industry conditions, held fairly steady at its previous level and its employment reading also improved. The general business activity index stayed negative but rose to -20.0, but the company outlook index moved down to -16.9. The new orders reading fell to -18.1 while readings for capacity utilization and shipments indexes remained in negative territory. Read the full report here.
• The U.S. job market seems to have remained in good shape over the summer. Employers added 187,000 jobs in July and the nation’s unemployment rate remained at a low level of 3.7 percent. Manufacturers shed 2,000 jobs last month, however. In other news: employers had 6 million jobs for which they were still looking for workers. Finally, during the week that ended July 29, 2023, 227,000 individuals filed for federal unemployment benefits for the first time, an increase of 6,000 first-time claims from the previous week. The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims was 228,250, a decrease of 5,500 from the week before. Read more here.
• Canadian employers shed 6,400 jobs in July and the country’s unemployment rate increased to 5.5 percent. It was the third month in a row the country’s jobless rate had risen. Most of the job losses came from the construction industry. The healthiest job gains, meanwhile, were seen in the health care and social assistance sectors.
• In other economic news: U.S. construction spending was up 0.5 percent between May 2023 and June 2023 and 3.5 percent between June 2022 and June 2023; U.S. worker productivity rose 3.7 percent in the second quarter of 2023; and unit labor costs in the nonfarm business sector increased 1.6 percent during the same quarter.