Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

HOLIDAY TRAVEL DEMAND IS WEAK, AIRLINES SAY. After air travel picked up earlier in this quarter, airline bookings weakened before Thanksgiving and have not recovered in what is traditionally one of the busiest periods for air travel, American Airlines said in a 4 December regulatory filing reported by Bloomberg. Without the holiday sales bump, the...

A time without conventions to host is the right time to make over convention spaces. The city of Indianapolis is borrowing $155 million to revamp its Indiana Convention Center to accommodate the 2026 annual meeting of the American Dental Association. After upgrading its air filtration and cleaning systems this year, the center lured six basketball...

Among 2,500 office buildings in 10 large U.S. cities, about 25 percent of workers had returned as of 18 November, reported Kastle Systems, a security firm that tracks access card swipes in those buildings. The rate has dipped from October’s mark of 27 percent but remains comfortably above the 15 percent recorded in April. However,...

Sixty-nine percent of Americans will not travel during the December holiday season, the Morning Consult reported in a new survey. Only 32 percent of respondents said they had taken an overnight vacation or any kind of leisure trip since March, and 44 percent said their next stay in a hotel is a year or more...

From Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, U. S. shoppers spent 14 percent less than they did in 2019, the National Retail Federation (NRF) reported. Shoppers spent an average of $312 each over the five-day stretch, about the same as in 2018. They numbered 186.4 million, down slightly from the 189.6 million who opened their wallets a...

October sales at U.S. restaurants declined for the first month since the economic recovery began last spring, according to data amassed by the U.S. census bureau. “October’s sales decline is a troubling sign for the industry, as the month likely included some of the last opportunities for outdoor dining in many parts of the country,”...

The U.S. economy added 245,000 jobs in November, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, less than half the 638,000 gained in October and well below the 440,000 that economists had forecast. Even the healthcare industry, in the midst of a pandemic, reported 527,000 fewer workers last month than were on payrolls last February. Adding...

Sixty-three percent of Americans, including 64 percent of Millennials, are living from paycheck to paycheck since March and are unable to save any money, according to a survey of more than 2,000 adults commissioned by software designer Highland Solutions. Forty-seven percent have burned through their emergency savings, and 82 percent admit they could not pay...

On 4 December, all four major U.S. stock indices set new record highs, driven by euphoria over the prospect of COVID vaccines’ distribution and resumption of stimulus negotiations between Congress and the Trump administration. The Dow gained 1 percent on the day, closing at 30,218.26. The NASDAQ rose 2.1 percent to 12,464.23. The Russell index...

IMF: MORE MONEY INJECTIONS NEEDED. The world’s economy is resilient enough to recover from the global economic shutdown at a brisk pace if policymakers act quickly and inject more money into the financial infrastructure, digital technology, and environmental safeguards, Kristalena Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said on 2 December at the Financial...