Can anyone tell me what type of manic-depressive economics are going on???? This is this mornings' news. Read the first point, then read the second point... and which news do you think is MOST relevant (with more far-reaching repercussions?)... The "reality" or the "index"???
10:00am 08/05/03
U.S. July cuts up 43% to 85,117: Challenger By Rex Nutting
WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- U.S. companies stepped up the pace of layoffs in July, reversing a two-month downward trend, an international outplacement firm reported Tuesday. Job-reduction announcements rose 43 percent to 85,117 in July after falling to a 31-month low of 59,715 in June, according to the monthly tally by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based employment firm. Through the first seven months of 2003, layoffs are down 12 percent to 715,649 compared with 816,493 in 2002. In July, consumer products companies cut 15,665 jobs. Transportation companies cut 9,820 and government and non-profit establishments cut 9,369 jobs.
10:09am 08/05/03
July ISM non-manufacturing surges to 65.1 By Greg Robb
WASHINGTON (CBS.MW)-- The services side of the U.S. economy expanded at a rapid pace in July, the Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday. The ISM non-manufacturing index rose to 65.1 percent in July from 60.6 percent in June. This is the highest level of the index since Oct 1997. This is the 4th consecutive month the index has been over 50. A reading over 50 indicates expansion in the non-manufacturing sectors of the economy. Market economists had expected the index to fall to 58.1 percent, in part because they viewed the large increase in June as unsustainable. The index surged to 60.6 percent in June from 54.5 percent in May. The new orders index jumped to 66.9 percent from 57.5 in May. The ISM is a diffusion index, measuring the breadth, not depth, of economic activity.
