Economics and Statistics Administration

WASHINGTON – U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke issued the following statement today on the release of the February 2011 U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services report by the Commerce Department’s U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Today’s report showed that U.S. exports of goods and services in February 2011 decreased 1.4 percent from January 2011 to $165.1 billion, with record exports of services ($47.2 billion). U.S. imports of goods and services decreased 1.7 percent over this period to $210.9 billion, causing the U.S. trade deficit to decrease 2.6 percent since January 2011 to reach $45.8 billion in February 2011.

statement_by_secretary_locke_on_international_trade.pdf

Some good news on the employment front! The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their January 2012 report on the employment situation showing private sector employment increased 257,000 -- the largest increase since April 2011 (264,000).  In addition, private sector employment gains were revised upward by 58,000 in November and 8,000 in December.  Over the past 23 months, the private sector has added jobs every month for a total of nearly 3.7 million jobs.  

One of the first available indicators about the U.S. economy in 2012 is the measure of retail sales of light vehicles and the news is good: January saw new sales just under 14.2 million (at an annual rate), up from 13.6 in December 2011.  This is highest monthly level since May 2008 (even higher than the August 2009 spike, or as I like to call it “Mount Cash-for-Clunkers”).

Like many other economic indicators (such as GDP, Employment, and Personal Income) construction spending finished the year on an upward trend as we move into 2012.  Total construction spending in December 2011 was $816.4 billion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, up 1.5 percent from the revised Nove