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 Tue Aug 19 12:30:27 2008 GMT Housing Starts/Building Permits http://www.census.gov/starts Privately-owned housing starts in July 2008 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 965,000. This is 11.0 percent below the revised June 2008 estimate of 1,084,000.

July 2008: -11.0 % change
June 2008: +10.4 % change ]]> Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales http://www.census.gov/bussales U.S. total business sales for May were $1,212.4 billion, up 1.7% from last month. Month-end inventories were $1,489.5 billion, up 0.7% from last month.

June 2008: +1.7 % Change in sales
May 2008: +0.8 % Change in sales ]]> Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services http://www.census.gov/retail U.S. retail and food service sales for July reached $384.6 billion, a decrease of 0.1 percent from the previous month.

July 2008: -0.1 % change
June 2008: +0.3 % 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 $56.8 billion in June from $59.2 billion (revised) in May, as exports increased more than imports.

June 2008: -56.8 $ billion
May 2008: -59.2 $ billion ]]> Monthly Wholesale Trade: Sales and Inventories http://www.census.gov/wholesale/index.html June 2008 sales of merchant wholesalers were $411.2 billion, up 2.8 percent from last month. End-of-month inventories were $435.9 billion, up 1.1 percent from last month.

June 2008: 1.1 % change in Inv
May 2008: 0.9 % change in Inv ]]> Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders http://www.census.gov/m3 New orders for manufactured goods in June increased $7.6 billion or 1.7 percent to $457.6 billion.

June 2008: 1.7 % change
May 2008: 0.9 % change ]]> Construction Spending http://www.census.gov/c30 Total construction activity for June 2008 ($1,081.9 billion) was 0.4 percent below the revised May 2008 ($1,085.7 billion). Please see our web site for further details: http://www.census.gov/constructionspending

June 2008: -0.4 % change
May 2008: 0.0 % change ]]> New Home Sales http://www.census.gov/newhomesales Sales of new one-family houses in June 2008 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 530,000. This is 0.6% below the revised May 2008 figure of 533,000.

June 2008: -0.6 % change
May 2008: -1.7 % change ]]> Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories, and Orders http://www.census.gov/m3 New orders for manufactured durable goods in June increased $1.6 billion or 0.8 percent to $215.4 billion.

June 2008: 0.8 % change
May 2008: 0.1 % change ]]> Housing Vacancies and Homeownership http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/hvs.html

Homeownership Rate (HR)
The homeownership rate at 68.1 percent for the current quarter was not statistically different from the second quarter 2007 rate (68.2 percent) or the rate last quarter (67.8 percent).

Rental Vacancy Rate (RVR)
National vacancy rates in the second quarter 2008 were 10.0 percent for rental housing, which was higher than the second quarter rate last year (9.5 percent), but was not statistically different from the rate last quarter (10.1 percent).

Homeowner Vacancy Rate (HVR)
For homeowner vacancies, the current rate (2.8 percent) was not statistically different from the second quarter 2007 rate (2.6 percent) or the rate last quarter (2.9 percent).

2nd Qtr 2008
(HR): 68.1 percent
2nd Qtr 2007
(HR): 68.2 percent ]]> 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 ]]> 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 ]]>