Bloomberg BusinessWeek (07/18/12) Martin Crutsinger
The Federal Reserve’s “beige book” survey shows only modest economic expansion in June and early July and indicates that hiring slowed in most of the 12 banking districts covered by the report. The unemployment rate held steady at 8.2% in June, and new jobs declined from an average of 226,000 per month during the first three months of the year to 75,000 per month for the April through June period. However, economists generally believe that the central bank will hold off on another round of quantitative easing.