U.S. Economic News
June 25, 2019
U.S. Economic Indicators
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell from 131.3 (revised) in May to 121.5 in June. Consumer Confidence declined after three consecutive monthly increases, as consumers’ assessment of business and labor market conditions became less favorable. Conference Board Report
New home sales fell 7.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 626,000 in May and are 3.7% below the May 2018 rate. The median sales price fell to $308,000 and the inventory of new homes rose to 6.4 months at the current sales rate. Census Bureau Report
U.S. News
Bloomberg reports that tariffs imposed by the U.S. on Chinese goods have caused production to shift to other countries, indicating that globalization is being disrupted but has not gone into reverse. Trade among major economies including the U.S., Japan, and South Korea has fallen sharply from last year amid fracturing global supply chains. Bloomberg
According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Labor Department released a proposal to create a new type of apprenticeship program administered directly by business groups, labor unions, and educational institutions rather than the federal government. U.S. job openings in April outnumbered unemployed Americans by the largest margin since 2000; most U.S. jobs, however, are in private-sector service fields, which currently have few apprenticeship programs. WSJ