What's going up? Hiring, spending, incomes, GDP and hours workedAlthough the economy and the job market have a long grueling road ahead of us, recent data suggest we at least have started our journey.
Going up
Economists are projecting the U.S. economy added 185,000 jobs in March. This is an increase of 162,000 jobs in March. Although the unemployment rate will not come down anytime soon, employers are hiring more. The official unemployment report comes out May 7th.
According to the data released by the Commerce Department Americans are continuing to spend more. Personal spending rose for the sixth month in a row in March. Consumer spending comprises of about 70% of the U.S. economic activity.
Personal income continued to climb and increased by 0.3% which follows a 0.1% rise the month before. However, Bloomberg reports that the meager gains in disposable income over the past nine months have been largely due to government transfers and tax refunds.
The GDP report showed Friday that we have just gone through our third consecutive quarter of economic growth. GDP rose 3.2% in Q1 (although it increased 5.6% in Q4 2009).
The total hours worked increased as well. Current employees working longer hours increased by 0.4% in Q1. After falling over 9% during the recession there's still a long way to go.
