Bloomberg (03/03/13) Steve Matthews; Rich Miller; Jeanna Smialek

Record-long spells of joblessness are waning, new data from the U.S. Department of Labor show. The median duration people spend looking for work declined to 16 weeks in January from 25 weeks in June 2010. Fewer people are competing for each job, and persistent long-term unemployment is starting to abate. As the slack in the labor market tightens, temporary staffing firms will see an increase in demand, says Jeffrey M. Silber, BMO Capital Markets senior analyst in New York. “As it becomes more difficult to find qualified labor, you need to use outside experts—whether temporary staffing providers or full-time recruiters—to help fill these positions,” he says.

A tightening labor market “should help pricing power of staffing firms prospectively,” says Andrew Steinerman, a business-services analyst in New York at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Wall Street Journal (03/03/13) Neil Shah

The Institute for Supply Management’s measure of U.S. factory activity rose in February for the third consecutive month to 54.2. A number above 50 points to growth. Exports rose to a nine-month high, and new orders and order backlogs, both of which indicate future business, climbed significantly. U.S. “manufacturers are now seeing a rebound in domestic demand, especially the early cyclical industries,” says Joseph Carson, an economist at Alliance Bernstein. An ISM index tracking new orders rose to 57.8 from 53.3 in January—the biggest jump since March 2010—while a separate index for production rose to 57.6 from 53.6. The “overall tone in manufacturing is clearly positive,” says Brad Holcomb, chairman of the ISM’s manufacturing-survey panel. “As for how sustainable this is, we suspect we will stay in a pretty tight range for the next couple of months.”

Gallup Economy (03/01/13) Dennis Jacobe

Gallup’s consumer spending measure for February, based on a survey of 12,384 U.S. adults, showed little change from January at an average of $83 per day versus $80, down from $106 per day in February 2008. However, spending among upper-income Americans reached an average of $141, close to the $148 per day average for that group in February 2008. Spending among middle- and lower-income consumers barely budged at $72 in February from $70 in January, lagging behind the $95 per day average in February 2008. Consumer spending has not caught up with spending in the early stages of the recession and prior to the financial crisis, leading experts to believe that job growth must improve to increase consumer spending.