Full text of U.S. Financial Data : December 7, 2000

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December 7, 2000

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
■ Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits totaled
352,000 for the week ending Dec. 2. Unemployment claims averaged
345,250 during the past four weeks, the highest four-week average
since July 1998.
■ Output per hour (labor productivity) in the nonfarm business sector
grew at a revised 3.3 percent annual rate during the third quarter,
which was 0.5 percentage points less than the advance estimate.
With growth of hourly compensation costs lowered 0.1 percentage
point to 6.3 percent, growth of unit labor costs during the third
quarter, accordingly, was boosted from 2.5 percent to 2.9 percent.
Measured from four quarters earlier, productivity in the nonfarm
business sector has increased 4.8 percent, while compensation
costs are up 5.1 percent and unit labor costs have risen 0.2 percent.
■ The nominal value of new orders to manufacturers for durable and
nondurable goods totaled $373.9 billion in October, $12.7 billion
less than in September. With factory inventories rising 0.6 percent
in October, and shipments falling 0.6 percent, the inventory-to-sales
ratio rose to its highest level in a year.
■ In its annual historical revision, the Federal Reserve Board of
Governors reported that increases in manufacturing output for the
period from 1996 to the third quarter of 2000 were greater than
previously measured. The index of manufacturing output rose an
average of 6 percent per year during this period, 0.4 percentage
points more than its previous estimate.
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) electronic
bulletin board at (314) 621-1824 or internet World Wide Web server at www.stls.frb.org/fred.