Gross Domestic Product

In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses the GDP.

• Gross domestic product (GDP) grew at slower pace of 1.9 percent in the first quarter of 2012, based on the revised estimate of the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  This is a downward revision from the preliminary estimate of 2.2 percent and a slowdown from the 2011 Q4 growth of 3.0 percent.
• Looking beyond the aggregate number, stronger growth was recorded for private consumption spending (2.7%) and residential fixed investment (19.4%). This is the second quarter of double digit growth in residential fixed investment.
• Meanwhile, the Department of Labor also reported that 383,000 initial claims for unemployment insurance were filed for the week ending May 26; claims are up by 10,000 from the previous week. The official employment condition will be released by the Bureau of Labor Statics this Friday.
• From a separate data source, the private sector employment grew by 133,000 in May.  The pace is implying continuing expansion of jobs but rather sluggishly.  Jobs should be growing at 250,000 per month to be considered healthy.  This data from ADP, a company that processes many of private companies’ paychecks, has been reasonably a good predictor of official employment condition that will be released Friday.

By Gay Cororaton