PR Newswire (05/18/15)

General Employment Enterprises Inc. reported net revenues of $9.8 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2015, up 2% from $9.6 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2014. Revenue from contract staffing services totaled $8.3 million, and revenue from direct placement services totaled $1.5 million. The company reported a GAAP net loss from operations of $505,000 for the second quarter, compared with a net loss of $693,000 in the year-ago quarter.

Wall Street Journal (05/15/15) Jon Hilsenrath

Experts have dimmer hopes about U.S. growth potential due to recent soft economic reports, and output could remain flat for the first half of the year. The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to take these developments into account as officials debate when to lift interest rates. Industrial production contracted for the fifth consecutive month in April, while consumer sentiment, retail sales, and trade figures are down. Second-quarter growth is expected to be revised down into negative territory, though few economists believe the U.S. is near recession. Companies are hiring and income and wealth are on the rise.

Wall Street Journal (05/15/15) Kathleen Madigan

Consumers are taking a dimmer view of the economy than they were last month, according to a new survey. The University of Michigan preliminary May consumer sentiment index declined from a final April reading of 95.9 to 88.6. In January the index stood at an 11-year high of 98.1. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast a preliminary May reading of 95.5.

“Confidence fell in early May as consumers became increasingly convinced that there would be no quick and robust rebound following the dismal [first] quarter,” says Richard Curtin, chief economist at Michigan’s Survey of Consumers, which compiles the sentiment index. However, despite the decline in sentiment, consumers remain “optimistic about their future personal finances and have maintained their buying plans at reasonably high levels,” Curtin says. Real consumer spending may grow by 3% this year, the data suggest.

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (05/15/15)

The outlook for growth in the U.S. economy over the next three years looks weaker now than it did in February, according to 44 forecasters surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The forecasters say real gross domestic product will grow at an annual rate of 2.5% this quarter and 3.1% next quarter. On an annual-average to annual-average basis, real GDP will grow 2.4% in 2015, down 0.8 percentage point from the previous estimate. The forecasters say real GDP will grow 2.8% each year in 2016 and 2017, and 2.5% in 2018.

A slightly brighter outlook for unemployment accompanies the weaker outlook for growth. The forecasters say that the unemployment rate will be an annual average of 5.4% in 2015, before falling to 5.0% in 2016, and 4.8% each year in 2017 and 2018. The projections for 2016, 2017, and 2018 are slightly below those of the last survey.

The panelists have revised downward their estimates for job gains in 2015 and 2016. The forecasters see nonfarm payroll employment growing at a rate of 195,300 jobs per month this quarter, 223,300 jobs per month next quarter, and 223,000 jobs per month in the fourth quarter of 2015. The forecasters’ projections for the annual-average level of nonfarm payroll employment suggest job gains at a monthly rate of 243,900 in 2015 and 180,100 in 2016.