News in end use

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending January 6, 2022. The PMMS reports that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.22% with an average 0.7 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.11%. A year ago, at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.65%.

According to the latest Job Cut Report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CG&C), Inc, job cuts announced by U.S. based employers rose 28.1% in December to 19,052 from the 14,875 job cuts announced in November. However, the number remains -75.3% below the 77,030 job cuts announced in December of 2020. In Q4 of 2021, U.S. companies announced a total of 56,749 job cuts, up 7.4% from the announced Q3 total of 52,560, but down -74.5% from the 222,249 cuts announced in the same quarter in 2020.

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 207,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, January 1, 2022. This is an increase of 7,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 204,50 — an increase of 4,750 from the previous week’s revised average.

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) reported today (1-5-22) that the total value of building permits in November increased 6.8% to $11.2 billion (CAD). According to StatsCan, 7 out of 10 Canadian provinces reported increases, with Alberta leading the way with a 20.6% jump. Overall construction intentions in the residential sector increased by 12.0%, while the non-residential sector experienced a -3.4% decline.

According to analysis provided by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), construction employment increased in nearly two out of three U.S. metro areas year-over-year, between November 2020 and November 2021. AGC officials welcomed the news for the overall construction industry but noted that it will be challenging for construction levels to return to pre-pandemic levels amid the current tight labor market conditions.

According to the December ADP® National Employment Report™, nonfarm private sector employment increased by 807, 000 jobs from November to December. The ADP National Employment Report is produced by the ADP Research Institute® in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics. The report, which is derived from ADP’s actual payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally adjusted basis.

According to the latest CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI®) Report, released on Tuesday (1-4-22), U.S. national home prices increased 18.1% year-over-year in November 2021. The November 2021 HPI gain was up from the November 2020 gain of 8.1% and was the highest 12-month growth in the U.S. index since the series began in 1976.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey (WMAS), for the week ending December 31, 2021, the Market Composite Index (a measure of mortgage loan application volume) decreased -2.7% percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from two week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased -32% compared to two weeks ago.

A closer look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Job Openings and Labor Turn Over Survey (JOLTS) for November — with an emphasis on the construction labor market and additional analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) — reveals that the construction labor market remains tight as the number of quits accelerated. According to the report, the number of open/unfilled construction positions in November dropped to 345,000, or -4.4%.

On Tuesday (1-4-22) the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) for November 2021. According to the JOLTS report, as of the last day in November, the number of job openings decreased to 10.6 million (-529,000 or -6.6%). The number of hires was increased to 6.7 million in November, up from October’s 6.5 million. The hire rate was 4.5% up from 4.4% in October.