Full text of U.S. Financial Data : April 26, 2001

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April 26, 2001

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
■ Following gains of 0.9 percent during the third and fourth
quarters of 2000, the employment cost index (ECI) measuring
changes in private-industry compensation rose 1.1 percent during
the first quarter of 2001. Private-industry wages and salaries
increased 1.1 percent during the first quarter, while benefit costs
rose 1.4 percent. Measured from four quarters earlier, the ECI
has increased 4.2 percent, with wages and salaries up 3.8 percent
and benefit costs up 5 percent.
■ In March, the value of new orders for manufactured durable goods
increased 3 percent, as orders for transportation equipment surged
21.4 percent. Excluding the transportation sector, new orders fell
1.8 percent, the fifth decline in the last six months. New orders for
electronic and electrical equipment fell 5.3 percent in March and,
moreover, are down 16.3 percent from a year earlier.
■ New single-family homes sold at an annual rate of 1,021,000 units in
March, the highest sales rate on record and 7.8 percent more than a
year earlier. Similarly, sales of previously sold (existing) homes were
at an annual rate of 5.44 million units in March, nearly matching the
all-time high of 5.45 million units sold in June 1999.
■ The Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence fell 7.7
percentage points in April to 109.2 percent (1985=100). Measured
from a year earlier, the index has declined 28.5 percentage points.

All data are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise indicated.
U.S. Financial Data is published weekly by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of
St. Louis. For more information on data, please call (314) 444-8590. To be added to the mailing
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Information in this publication is also included in the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) data base
on the internet at www.stls.frb.org/fred.