Economic Momentum Still Is Downward in the U.S.

 

Further deterioration of the labor market was inevitable in March, a pattern revealed by weekly data on new and continuing claims for unemployment insurance. Courtesy of www.mfs-insurance.co.uk

Real gross domestic product (GDP) contracted at a 6.2 percent annual rate in the final quarter of last year, the sharpest contraction since the depths of the 1982 recession, according to National Association of Home Builders. Available evidence on economic activity for the early part of 2009 shows that another major decline in GDP is in the cards for the first quarter of the year. NAHB currently estimates the decline at -5.5 percent.