U.S. Census Bureau Economic Briefing Room http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/briefroom/BriefRm Key National Economic Indicators Published by the U.S. Census Bureau en Thu Jul 17 12:30:05 2008 GMT Housing Starts/Building Permits http://www.census.gov/starts Privately-owned housing starts in June 2008 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,066,000. This is 9.1 percent above the revised May 2008 estimate of 977,000.

June 2008: +9.1 % change
May 2008: -2.7 % change ]]> Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales http://www.census.gov/bussales U.S. total business sales for May were $1,189.4 billion, up 0.8% from last month. Month-end inventories were $1,479.3 billion, up 0.3% from last month.

May 2008: +0.8 % Change in sales
April 2008: +1.4 % Change in sales ]]> Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services http://www.census.gov/retail U.S. retail and food service sales for June reached $384.2 billion, an increase of 0.1 percent from the previous month.

June 2008: +0.1 % change
May 2008: +0.8 % change ]]> U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services http://www.census.gov/trade The Nation's international deficit in goods and services decreased to $59.8 billion in May from $60.5 billion (revised) in April, as exports increased more than imports.

May 2008: -59.8 $ billion
April 2008: -60.5 $ billion ]]> Quarterly Financial Report - Retail Trade http://www.census.gov/csd/qfr/ After-tax profits for retail corporations with assets greater than $50 million averaged 2.2 cents per dollar of sales for the first quarter 2008, down 1.0 cents from the average of 3.2 cents for the fourth quarter 2007.

1st Qtr. 2008: -1.0 cents
4th Qtr. 2007: +0.6 cents ]]> Monthly Wholesale Trade: Sales and Inventories http://www.census.gov/wholesale/index.html May 2008 sales of merchant wholesalers were $397.4 billion, up 1.6 percent from last month. End-of-month inventories were $431.0 billion, up 0.8 percent from last month.

May2008: 0.8 % change in Inv
April 2008: 1.4 % change in Inv ]]> Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders http://www.census.gov/m3 New orders for manufactured goods in May increased $2.8 billion or 0.6 percent to $448.7 billion.

May 2008: 0.6 % change
April 2008: 1.3 % change ]]> Construction Spending http://www.census.gov/c30 Total construction activity for May 2008 ($1,085.2 billion) was 0.4 percent below the revised April 2008 ($1,089.3 billion). Please see our web site for further details: http://www.census.gov/constructionspending

May 2008: -0.4 % change
April 2008: -0.1 % change ]]> New Home Sales http://www.census.gov/newhomesales Sales of new one-family houses in May 2008 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 512,000. This is 2.5% below the revised April 2008 figure of 525,000.

May 2008: -2.5 % change
April 2008: +4.8 % change ]]> Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders http://www.census.gov/m3 New orders for manufactured durable goods in May increased slightly to $213.6 billion.

May 2008: 0.0 % change
April 2008: -1.0 % change ]]> Quarterly Financial Report - Manufacturing, Mining and Trade http://www.census.gov/csd/qfr/ Manufacturing corporations' seasonally adjusted after-tax profits averaged 7.4 cents per dollar of sales for the first quarter of 2008, not statistically different from the average of 7.4 cents for the fourth quarter of 2007.

1st Qtr 2008: No Change cents
4th Qtr 2007: +2.5 cents ]]> Quarterly Services Survey http://www.census.gov/qss U.S. Information sector revenue for the first quarter of 2008, not adjusted for seasonal variation, holiday or trading-day differences, or price changes, was $277.9 billion, a decrease of 4.7 percent (+/- 0.7) from the fourth quarter of 2007.

1st Qtr 2008: -4.7 % change
4th Qtr 2007: 4.8 % change ]]> Housing Vacancies and Homeownership http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/hvs.html

Homeownership Rate (HR)
The homeownership rate in the first quarter 2008 (67.8 percent) was lower than the first quarter 2007 rate (68.4 percent). The homeownership rate in South was lower than the corresponding rate a year ago, while the rate in the other regions did not change significantly.

Rental Vacancy Rate (RVR)
The rental vacancy rate in first quarter 2008 (10.1 percent) remained about the same as the first quarter 2007 rate (also 10.1 percent).

Homeowner Vacancy Rate (HVR)
The homeowner vacancy rate in first quarter 2008 (2.9 percent) was not statistically different from the first quarter 2007 rate (2.8 percent).

1st Qtr 2008
(HR): 67.8 percent
1st Qtr 2007
(HR): 68.4 percent ]]>