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

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September 7, 2000

USFinancialData
THE WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits averaged
317,500 for the four weeks ending Sept. 2, the highest level since
the four weeks ending Jan. 23, 1999.
Spot prices for West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed at $34.90
a barrel on Sept. 6, the highest level since early November 1990.
Crude oil prices are up 54.2 percent from a year earlier.
Revisions showed output per hour (productivity) in the nonfarm
business sector rising at a 5.7 percent annual rate during the second
quarter, 0.4 percentage points faster than the advance estimate.
Nonfarm unit labor costs (hourly compensation adjusted for
productivity gains) fell at a 0.4 percent rate during the second
quarter, the second drop in the past three quarters. Measured
from four quarters earlier, productivity has increased 5.2 percent,
while unit labor costs have declined 0.4 percent. Output of the
nonfarm business sector accounts for about 76 percent of the
value of real GDP (1996 weights).
Real construction spending fell 1.7 percent in July, the fourth
consecutive monthly decline. Construction outlays are up 0.6
percent from a year earlier.
Largely because of a strike in the communications industry and
additional reductions in temporary census workers, the number
of jobs at nonfarm establishments declined 105,000 in July.
Year-to-date, monthly payroll employment gains have averaged
181,625, about 40,000 a month less than the same period in 1999.
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) 444-8808 or (314) 444-8809.
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.