The American home market continued to offer low mortgage rates as home lenders await more news about how the Federal Reserve will handle fiscal policy going into 2014.
There also was anticipation about the unemployment report set to come out at the end of the first full week of January.
Employers added 238,000 jobs in December, the most since November 2012, according to payroll processing company ADP. The ADP data was released just two days before the U.S. Department of Labor releases unemployment figures for December and revised numbers for November.
Small businesses across the United States added 20,000 jobs in December, continuing an overall trend that started two years ago of more small business employers bringing in workers.
The total number of jobs added at small businesses since March 2010 stands at more than 555,000, according to numbers from the Intuit Small Business Employment and Revenue indexes.
As Colorado begins selling marijuana over the counter for recreational use, business students can learn a thing or two about that most basic economic rule: the law of supply and demand.
As the first sales got underway this month, observers have noted the price of marijuana has skyrocketed.
All three of Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers reported sales increases for 2013 over the previous, with some reporting their best numbers since last decade.
General Motors reported selling 2,786,078 vehicles, a 7% increase over 2012 sales. Ford reported an almost 11% increase, while Chrysler reported a 9% increase.
Two major indicators of stock market health – the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index and the Dow Jones industrial average – ended 2013 with the highest gains since the end of last century.
The S&P 500 increased by 29.6% in 2013, the index’s best annual performance since 1997. The big jump added $3.75 trillion in market value, according to the New York Times. Meanwhile the Dow Jones jumped by 26.5%, the best performance since 1995.
Consumer spending rose again in November 2013 at the fastest rate since June – the latest in string of good news about the economy.
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that spending by consumers had jumped by .5% in November after a .4% gain in October. The Commerce Department reported that the gain was driven by consumers buying durable goods such as automobiles, furniture and appliances.
As the country headed into the last weekend before the Christmas break, the federal government announced that the gross domestic product in the third quarter grew at a faster rate than first reported.
The economy expanded in the third quarter at a 4.1% annualized rate, higher than the 3.6% first reported, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. That’s the fastest rate in almost two years.
Unlike many professions, those who enter business will often enter the work world after earning an under graduate degree, only to return to school later for graduate school.
This creates a situation where graduate school students have great experience , having spent years in the workforce, learning how ideas learned in school are applied in the real world. However, going back to school can often be a difficult transition, according to an article from U.S. News & World Report.
Housing starts surged in November, increasing almost 23% over the previous month, according to numbers released this week by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The increase translates into an annual new home start rate of 1.019 million, according to the Commerce Department. It’s the highest level since February 2008.
