Full text of U.S. Financial Data : August 9, 2001

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August 9, 2001

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
s New claims for state unemployment insurance benefits totaled
385,000 for the week ending Aug. 4. Averaged over the last four
reporting weeks, initial claims totaled 380,000, the smallest four-week
average since the week ending March 31.
s In July, prices of goods imported into the United States declined 1.6
percent, the fifth decline this year. Prices of petroleum goods fell 6.1
percent in July, while prices of nonpetroleum goods fell 1 percent.
Year-to-date, total import prices have declined 4.5 percent.
s Nonfarm business sector output grew at a 0.1 percent annual rate
during the second quarter, while hours worked fell at a 2.4 percent
rate, the largest decline since the first quarter of 1992. Accordingly,
output per hour, or productivity, in the nonfarm business sector
increased at a 2.5 percent rate during the second quarter. The
advance second-quarter Productivity and Cost report incorporated
the recent revisions to the national income and product accounts
and the annual benchmark revision to establishment payroll data.
As a result of these revisions, the annualized growth of nonfarm
productivity from the fourth quarter of 1997 through the first quarter
of 2001 was reduced from 2.9 percent to 2.5 percent.
s The number of payroll jobs at nonagricultural establishments
declined 42,000 in July, less than half the revised 93,000 decline
reported in June. The unemployment rate remained at 4.5 percent
in July.

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
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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.