Economic Development

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index edged up from its mid-August level but was still consistent with recession-era lows, CNBC reported today.

The final August reading on the overall index of consumer sentiment …

Striking workers at Verizon Communications pushed up new U.S. jobless claims last week, but there was little evidence that the recent stock market turmoil had scared businesses enough for them to cut workers, Reuters reported.…

A prolonged economic slump is taking a heavy toll on small businesses, with owners reporting sharp declines in profits and a bleaker outlook, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In an Office Depot survey of 1,000 …

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Wednesday estimated that deficits over the next 10 years will total $3.5 trillion, about half of what was projected at the beginning of the year. The budget office also …

New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods surged in July on strong demand for transportation equipment, according to government data released on Wednesday, Reuters reported. A separate report indicated that sales in the public transit …

Stocks surged today, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes up more than 2 percent, as buyers emerged before a highly anticipated address by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke later this week, Reuters reported.…

Retailers’ slowest earnings growth since the last recession has them bracing for a weakened second half as the U.S. economy leaves consumers confronting the prospect of losing their jobs and a volatile stock market, Bloomberg …

Six months of civil war have left Libya’s oil industry in chaos, with fields that once pumped around 1.6 million barrels per day deserted and export terminals, pumping stations and pipelines damaged by fighting and …

Students who dropped out of college in the past decade cost the economy $4.5 billion in lost income and federal and state income taxes, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) said. The organization tracked 1.1 …

Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 6 percent in July, down from 6.2 percent for the same month one year ago, according to Iowa Workforce Development.

Employers have steadily added jobs in 2011, but …