Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

New Zealand’s economy contracted 12.2 percent in this year’s second quarter, the largest fall since 1987, the year the country began monitoring the number, and the country’s first quarter of negative growth since March 2010. Household spending dropped 12 percent; construction and manufacturing were off 25.8 and 13 percent, respectively, from the previous year. The...

Six of every ten restaurants in Canada could go out of business by November if the government offers no aid, according to a new study by the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions. Twenty-nine percent cannot operate at all under current social distancing mandates and 31 percent say they can survive no longer than 90 days...

A growing proportion of Chinese workers lack the specialized abilities needed to power the country’s increasingly sophisticated economy. Up to 9 percent of China’s workers lost their jobs during the economic shutdown and have been unable to find new work because they lack marketable skills, according to a study by Peking University. The problem is...

China’s August retail sales, the country’s last economic sector to recover from the economic shutdown, grew 0.5 percent in August above the August 2019 level. August is the first month this year when retail sales grew instead of shrinking. However, retail sales still lag last year’s rate overall by 8.6 percent. Business investment and rail...

China and the world’s rich countries will suffer less economic damage than feared, with the greatest harm falling on poor nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said last week. The global economy will contract less in 2020 than the group predicted in June, but the recovery will slow from now through the...

Under a new city council ordinance, New York City restaurants are able to add a 10-percent “COVID relief” charge to the tabs of customers dining indoors. The measure is intended to help eateries meet the rising cost of labor and added costs of sanitizing their facilities. The measure allows restaurants with up to 15 locations...

Sales in Starbucks’ urban stores will not recover to pre-pandemic levels for at least another six months, while sales at its suburban sites already are exceeding last year’s, the company said on 15 September. Starbucks is trying to find more parking space for many suburban locations and is adding drive-up windows to many of those...

Deutsche Bank’s U.S. employees working from home can expect to continue the arrangement until at least July 2021, the bank announced. Workers had asked for a clear policy statement, so they can make long-term arrangements regarding child care and other details. In a memo to its staff, the bank acknowledged their “understandable concerns about public...

Almost half of New York City dwellers earning $100,000 a year or more have considered leaving the metropolis during the pandemic because the cost of living there is so high, according to a poll by the Siena College Research Institute. Forty-four percent of the 782 city residents, surveyed in late July, said they had thought...

After closing last spring as the economy shut down, hundreds of U.S. hotels face the prospect of a weak fall and winter traveling season, leaving them without enough cash flow to continue. Almost 24 percent of U.S. hotels’ mortgage payments are at least 30 days late, compared to 1.3 percent at this time last year,...