U.S. small business optimism edged slightly higher in August as more owners said they expected business conditions to improve in coming months and planned to increase capital spending, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
Read more »
The U.S. labor market has become steadily less dynamic since 1990, with workers seemingly locked into particular jobs and a more sluggish process of job creation and destruction in the private sector, according to research to be presented to global central bankers on Friday.
Employment growth at the largest U.S. companies has lagged far behind increases in revenue and operating profit since the start of the century, as firms reaped the benefits of globalization, technology, and other ways to operate more productively, according to a Reuters analysis of corporate data.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Wednesday the economy was gaining traction but that the lack of progress on wages and employment remains disappointing.
Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell said on Friday that he wanted to see signs that the U.S. economy was tightening up before before interest rates could be raised.
Stanley Fischer's nomination to be a member of the U.S. Federal Reserve's board cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on Tuesday, virtually assuring that the noted economist will join the central bank within days.
