|
The American Trucking Associations’ advance seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index climbed “2.1% in December, following a 2.6% increase in November,” according to ATA’s Chief Economist, Bob Costello. Additionally, the robust tonnage numbers were aided by “better economic growth, as well as positive inventory effect. Compared with December, 2008, SA tonnage witnessed a [welcome] 6.6% upswing, which was the first year-over-year increase since September, 2008.”
In the year-over-year comparison, December’s growth partially was due to a whopping 7.8% plunge in tonnage in December, 2008. The Chief Economist forecasts that “the industry is moving [in] the right direction, but the level of freight will not be as strong as the year-over-year increases might suggest because of how terrible [the economy, especially tonnage,] was in late 2008 and much of 2009. (Source of data: American Trucking Associations’ website- newsroom, to be found at www.truckline.com.)
In January, 2010, we are witnessing an ascendant pattern in SA tonnage following its five-year low in April, 2009.
|
Unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men (10.2 percent), adult women (8.2 percent), teenagers (27.1 percent), whites (9.0 percent), blacks (16.2 percent), and Hispanics (12.9 percent)--showed little change in December. The unemployment rate for Asians was 8.4 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (Source of Data: US Dept of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
Among the unemployed, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) continued to trend up, reaching 6.1 million. In December, 4 in 10 unemployed workers were jobless for 27 weeks or longer. (US Dept of Labor, BLS.)
These data suggest to some that the condition of this economy presents an inexorably dire outcome for the American workforce; however, many are calling for the Obama administration, together with Congress, to grant permanent tax credits for businesses that invest in R&D and to cut taxes for corporations in order for them to find innovative means to stimulate growth and re-hire the workforce.
|
Real exports of goods and services increased 17.8 % in the 3rd quarter, 2009, while imports increased 21.3% during the same period, according to US Commerce Department data. Analyses are not yet available at this time for the final quarter.
The US International Trade in Goods and Services report—last released in late November from the US Census Bureau jointly with the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (US Commerce Department)—reflects deep concern over the continuing trend of shortfalls in American goods and services traded in the global market.
Furthermore, “there are worries of a default in Greece and inflation in China,” warns Quincy M. Krosby, a market strategist at Prudential Financial. Those concerns—along with some analysts’ predictions that the downward momentum on Wall Street may continue—create a “perfect storm of uncertainty on a market that had already been a bit vulnerable to a pullback.”
|
