This Week - Data Releases for the Week Ending
February 3, 2012

by Valorie Hanni Rice
Reference Librarian

S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices were released on Tuesday, January 31st with data for November. There were declines of 3.1 percent for both the 10-City and 20-City Composites for the month as 19 of the 20 cities showed a decline in prices. The only city with a positive change was Phoenix, with prices there going up 0.6 percent between October and November. The change from a year ago for Phoenix was -3.6 percent, putting it in line with the annual figures for the 10-City and 20-City Composites which were -3.6 percent and -3.7 percent, respectively.

National initial unemployment claims decreased to a seasonally-adjusted 367,000 as reported Thursday. That is a drop of 12,000 from the week prior. The four-week average went down to 375,750. Arizona unemployment claims data shows 5,604 initial claims for the third week of January compared to 6,675 the week before; however, the four-week average rose to 5,913.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday, January 3rd, total nonfarm employment rose by 243,000 in January and the unemployment rate went down to 8.3 percent from 8.5 percent in December. The private-sector gained 257,000 jobs over the month with professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing posting the largest gains.