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US downturn

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Pressure on Obama mounts after jobless rise

Rising US joblessness poses increasingly urgent political and policy challenges for US President Barack Obama

US shoppers still cautious in October

US chain retailers’ October sales data yesterday underlined shoppers’ cautious mood, with several mainstream retailers showing continuing comparable-sales falls at or below the depths plumbed after last year’s financial crash

US companies see productivity spurt

Corporate America achieved remarkable productivity gains in the third quarter, new data revealed, with output per hour worked up 9.5 per cent at an annualised rate, its fastest increase in six years

Impulse buying gives way to US frugality

Tights, sunglasses and boneless chickens have joined the list of casualties of America’s economic crisis, as the era of impulse shopping gives way to more wary behaviour in the nation’s grocery aisles.

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Comment

US engine revs up

The administration is a good third of the way through a stimulus package that is indispensable to prevent growth from slowing down again

Angry Americans feel they are still in slump

Ed Luce

For most Americans, the return to growth is a pure abstraction. Next week’s jobless numbers will be the more accurate reflection of the public’s mood, writes Edward Luce

Forecast of muted US revival in 2010

The likely shape of the US recovery remains an open question, with the central uncertainty being how vigorously private demand will expand as government props for growth begin to fade.

US weighs tax credit as jobless cure

Economists and policymakers are considering a targeted jobs tax credit to combat unemployment, which is projected to keep on rising for several months, peaking at around 10.3% in early 2010

The free market is not up to the job of creating work

The US may be looking at long-term, double-digit unemployment. Only massive programmes are equal to the challenge of restoring stable growth to our economy, writes Mort Zuckerman

The US economy is still struggling

Is the worst over? Some recent figures point that way, but for the moment, the emphasis needs to stay on caution not optimism

The united states of spending cuts

States will not change their perverse fiscal rules without Washington’s firm prompting. Further fiscal relief from Congress must be on an equal per-capita basis, so as not to reward past profligacy

American jobs data are worse than we think

The possibility of a very high and persistent unemployment rate is not, as yet, part of the mainstream US policy deliberations, writes Mohamed El-Erian

More stories

US loses 203,000 jobs in October

US manufacturing expansion strengthens

US tax credit boosts pending home sales

White House hails stimulus job gains

Waning stimulus hits consumer spending

US economy starts to grow

Consumers face tiny cuts as companies pare costs

Angry Americans feel they are still in slump

Crisis reveals worry about retirement funds

New US home sales fall 3.6%

US home prices rise 1.2% in August

Caterpillar move adds to hopes of US recovery

Mixed blessing for US workplaces on output

US home resales hit 2-year high

US jobless claims climb more than projected

Fed reports weak economic rebound

US industrial production surges in third quarter

Stimulus sustains 30,000 US jobs

US retail sales slump on post-‘clunker’ weakness

Slow US recovery blamed on low demand