News in end use

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 261,000 in October. Monthly job growth has averaged 407,000 thus far in 2022, compared with 562,000 per month in 2021.

Statistics Canada reported today that employment rose in Canada by 108,000, or 0.6%, in October. The increase helped to offset the losses reported from May to September. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.2%.

Statistics Canada reported that the total value of building permits in Canada declined 17.5% to $10.2 billion (CAD) in September, the largest monthly decline on record. This was the first time all survey components posted monthly decreases since September 2019.

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending November 3rd. The PMMS reports that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.95% with an average 0.8 point, down from last week when it averaged 7.08%.

According to the Challenger, Gray & Christmas Job Cuts Report released today, US employers announced 33,843 job cuts in October. This is a 13.0% increase from the 29,989 job cuts announced in September.

The US Department of Labor is reporting the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 217,000 during the week ending October 29th; this is a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 218,000.

The national vacancy rate in 22Q3 was 6.0% for rental housing and 0.9% for homeowner housing. The rental vacancy rate is 0.4 percentage points higher than the rate of 5.6% in 22Q2. The homeowner vacancy rate of 0.9% was little changed from 22Q2, when it was at 0.8%.

According to the October ADP® National Employment Report™, nonfarm private sector employment increased by 239,000 jobs in October, and annual pay was up 7.7% year-over-year. The report is produced in collaboration with Stanford Digital Economy Lab.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, for the week ending October 28th, the Market Composite Index—a measure of mortgage loan application volume—decreased 0.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.

On Tuesday, the US Census Bureau reported that total construction spending during September was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,811.1 billion, 0.2% above the revised August estimate of $1,807.0 billion.