Full text of U.S. Financial Data : October 11, 2001

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October 11, 2001

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
■ Following three consecutive monthly declines, the index of prices
paid for goods imported into the United States rose 0.3 percent in
September. Prices of imported petroleum goods rose 2.6 percent in
September after rising 1.7 percent in August. Prices of nonpetroleum
products were unchanged in September, following seven consecutive
decreases. Measured from a year earlier, total import prices have
declined 5.2 percent, with petroleum prices down 21.1 percent and
nonpetroleum prices down 2.6 percent.
■ Measured from the previous week, initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits fell 67,000 during the week ending Oct. 6
to 468,000. The four-week moving average, however, rose 8,000
and now stands at 463,000. Compared with the same period a year
earlier, the four-week average has increased 158,500, or 52.1 percent.
■ In September, nonfarm payroll employment declined 199,000, or
1.8 percent at an annual rate. This was the largest percentage decline
since April 1991. The index of aggregate hours, which is a composite
measure of nonfarm employment and average weekly hours, fell at
a 3.2 percent rate in September, the fifth decline in the last six months.
The civilian unemployment rate was unchanged in September at 4.9
percent. By contrast, in September 2000, the unemployment rate
stood at 3.9 percent.
■ After falling at a 1.3 percent rate in June, and at a 0.5 percent rate
in July, the value of consumer installment debt outstanding increased
at a 1.8 percent annual rate in August.
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
list, please call (314) 444-8809.
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.