Federal reports on key economic indicators for September are in, and despite a promising increase in house construction paint a bleak picture of an economy that is still dragging and making little progress towards a recovery. Federal Reserve data on output and productivity showed business operating close to twenty-five percent below capacity with manufacturing, mining and utility output decreasing by 0.1 percent instead of increasing by that amount as expected. Labor Department statistics on unemployment showed the four-week moving average in new claims for unemployment (see WIT for May, 17, 2002) climbing as high as 411,000 and remaining above 400,000 for the second month in a row, and the number of workers staying on unemployment jumping by the largest amount since 1995, to 3.76 million.
See "New jobless claims up; manufacturing down", Tribune News Services, Chicago Tribune, October 17, 2002