WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy continued to show improvement Thursday, with claims for jobless benefits declining and the key Dow Jones stock index closing on its longest winning streak in more than 15 years.
 The Dow Jones industrial average rose for a 10th straight day, gaining nearly 84 points to close at 14,539. The last time […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. retail spending rose at the fastest pace in five months in February, even though a tax hike crimped some family budgets.
 
 Wednesday’s Commerce Department report said outside the volatile areas of auto sales and fuel prices, sales in the overall economy advanced four-tenths of a percent for the month. Economists and investors watch […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. employment grew modestly in January and gains in the prior two months were bigger than initially reported, supporting views the economy’s sluggish recovery was on track despite a surprise contraction in output in the final three months of 2012.
 
 Employers added 157,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy shrank slightly in the last three months of 2012, due to cuts in government spending and slowing exports.
 Wednesday’s report from the Commerce Department says the economy shrank at a one-tenth of one percent annual rate in the fourth quarter.  That is the worst performance since 2009, during the recession.
 The decline […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. home sales declined in December, but were still well above the same period one year ago.
 Tuesday’s report from the National Association of Realtors shows December’s sales of previously-owned homes fell by one percent from the previous month.
 If homes sold at December’s rate for a full year, slightly more than 4.9 million homes […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama is holding White House talks Friday with the top four congressional leaders as the deadline for avoiding the “fiscal cliff” fast approaches.
 Obama will meet with Democratic and Republican Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner and Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
 If […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. consumer confidence fell sharply - from 71.5 to 65.1 - in December as Americans worried that political bickering could slow the economy and raise unemployment.
 Lynn Franco of the Conference Board says previous wrangling over the debt ceiling in August 2011 sparked a similar drop in expectations.
 Economists watch consumer confidence for hints about […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. housing construction surged in October to its highest level in more than four years.
 
The American housing market has perhaps been the weakest link in the country’s sluggish, but steady recovery from its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Millions of homeowners lost their homes to bank foreclosures, often […]

WASHINGTON - With the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign now history, newly re-elected President Barack Obama is turning his attention to negotiations with congressional leaders on a deal to tackle the nation’s massive debt. 
 
The White House says Obama phoned Republican House Speaker John Boehner Wednesday, the day after his election victory, to begin discussions on a […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. labor market added another 171,000 jobs in October even as the country’s jobless rate edged higher.
 
The government reported Friday that as more workers looked for work, the unemployment rate hit 7.9 percent, up one-tenth of a percentage point from September.
 
This is the last major economic report before Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. said its labor market improved markedly in July, even as the national jobless rate edged higher.
The government reported Friday that employers added 163,000 jobs last month, after three straight months of sluggish hiring, and the most since February.
 
But even as more unemployed workers found new jobs, the country’s unemployment rate increased […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. unemployment rate increased by one-tenth of a percentage point to 8.2 percent in May.
Friday’s report from the Labor Department also shows that the U.S. economy had a net gain of just 69,000 jobs, which is much less than most economists had predicted.
 
Economists say job gains are needed to give consumers the […]

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department said Thursday the country took in more money last month than it spent for the first time since September 2008, just before the global economic recession.
 
Americans pay their yearly taxes in April, so an increase in revenue is not unusual. The country is also expected to post another trillion-dollar deficit […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. jobless rate edged lower in April, but the government said Friday that job growth in the world’s largest economy was modest.
 
The Labor Department said the unemployment rate fell a tenth of a percentage point from March to 8.1 percent last month. But for the second straight month, more workers left the […]

WASHINGTON - A new snapshot of the U.S. job market paints a mixed picture. The Labor Department says the economy added 120,000 jobs in March, down sharply from the previous months. Still, it was enough to bring the unemployment rate down to 8.2 percent.
American companies hired fewer workers in March but the nation’s unemployment rate […]

WASHINGTON - The number of unemployed U.S. workers seeking new jobless benefits fell to a four-year low last week, as the labor market strengthens in the world’s largest economy.
The government’s Labor Department said that 357,000 workers made first-time claims for unemployment compensation, down 6,000 from the week before. That was the lowest total since April […]

WASHINGTON - The unemployment rate for members of the U.S. National Guard and military Reserve returning from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan is much higher than the jobless rate among U.S. veterans overall, according to the military and veterans’ advocacy groups.
The National Guard has been reporting jobless rates as high as 50 percent among its […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. housing market has been the weakest link of the country’s economic recovery from its recession, but new sales totals show the industry is rebounding.
Banks assumed ownership of millions of houses in the United States in the last few years as homeowners, many of them laid off from their jobs, were unable […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. says new claims for unemployment benefits matched a four-year low last week, a new signal that the labor market is improving in the world’s largest economy.
The government said Thursday that 351,000 jobless workers made initial claims for unemployment compensation - 14,000 fewer than the week before. The requests for assistance were […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy had a net gain of 227,000 jobs in February, while the unemployment rate held steady at 8.3 percent.  Some industry experts say Friday’s employment data is the latest in a series of generally upbeat economic reports showing the economy regaining strength and recovering from the worst recession in decades.  But […]

WASHINGTON - The number of unemployed Americans making their first claims for jobless benefits edged higher last week, but remained at a level suggesting the country’s labor market is strengthening.
 
The U.S. Labor Department said Thursday that 362,000 unemployed workers sought compensation. But the four-week average remained at about 355,000 — close to a four-year low. […]

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is trying to attract more foreign investors to boost the U.S. economy. Washington is encouraging U.S. firms to get out and compete for a larger share of the international market.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the reason behind this push for greater foreign investment is clear: Americans need jobs.
She […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit got nearly four percent worse in December as a reviving economy boosted demand for imported goods.
 
Both imports and exports hit record highs, but imports grew even more than the flow of goods exported from the United States.
 
Friday’s report from the Commerce Department says the gap between what foreigners sell […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. central bank chief says the government’s huge annual budget deficits are “unsustainable” and pose “serious economic consequences” for the country.
 
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a congressional committee Thursday that lawmakers need to make it a “top priority” to make certain the U.S. debt, now more than $15 trillion and growing […]