^^^ (snip)"Announcements continue to roll in from retailers that have decided to close stores, slow expansion plans or cease operations altogether."(snip)
^^^ (snip)"The March report from Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) shows that private employers in the U.S. cut 23,000 jobs in the month of March. In February, ADP reported 24,000 job losses. In December 2009, private employers eliminated 84,000 jobs. So things are getting worse more slowly. (snip)
Analysts expected ADP to report the addition of 40,000 jobs."(snip)
the Chicago Purchasing Manager's Index fell from 62.6 in February to 58.8 in March. That's a bigger-than-expected drop and breaks a run of 5 months in which the PMI was rising.
Adding to the mixed data on employment and the U.S. economy, the U.S. Commerce Department's report on factory orders showed a 0.6% rise in February. Good news, yes, but January's increase was 2.5%. And manufacturers' inventories are not growing, indicating that they have little confidence in a robust recovery."(snip)
^^^ (snip)"the tax receipts of the California state government dropped 13.9 percent. That was fifth highest of the states, with the higher states being: Alaska 41.2 percent drop in revenue, Arizona 17.9 percent, South Carolina 15.5 percent and New Mexico 14.1 percent.
It also found, “California, Arizona, and South Carolina reported the sharpest percent decline in individual income tax in 2009, decreasing 20.4 percent, 42.5 percent, and 29.6 percent from 2008 respectively.”(snip)
^^^ (snip)"WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) - U.S. states saw a second straight month of weak sales tax receipts in March, which suggests weakness in the broader economy, (snip)
Only 18 percent of states surveyed met or exceeded their sales tax projections last month, the report said. About a third of those surveyed said sales tax receipts were down from a year ago, some "quite steeply," it added."(snip)
the obvious take-away from the above is that when one sets aside 'official' statistics that are subject to seasonal adjustments, hedonic adjustments, out-and-out gaming the system ( i.e. counting temporary employment of US Census workers as equal and opposite to permanent unemployment of manufacturing workers ), and stick with real world statistics based on real money being spent, real business profits, real tax revenues collected etc., that the US economy looks far less 'rosey'.
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