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US Construction Job Openings: Feb 2019
Data from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), released Friday, indicate that construction job openings fell back in February but remain higher on a year-over-year basis, consistent with the ongoing challenge of the availability of labor for builders. The number of open construction jobs in the US totalled 286,000 for the month, compared…
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US Construction Materials Prices: March 2019
Prices paid for goods used in US residential construction increased +1.5% in March according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Thursday. Prices have risen more quickly thus far in 2019 than they did during the same period in 2018 and are at their highest level since last…
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Softwood Lumber Anti-Dumping Duty: WTO Ruling Explained
As usual with the seemingly-permanent Softwood Lumber Dispute between Canada and the US, the latest trade ruling brings up more questions than it resolves. An almost undecipherable ruling out of the World Trade Organization on softwood lumber this week caused some great confusion, in no small part because it is both for and against both…
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US and Canada Railway Carloadings: March & Jan 2019
US rail traffic continued its slump in March, falling -5.2% to 2,022,934 carloads and intermodal units compared with volumes in March 2018, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR) data released April 5. In it’s latest release, issued Wednesday, AAR reported US rail traffic for the week ending April 6, 2019, at 510,192 carloads and…
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WTO Panel Finds US Softwood Anti-Dumping Duties in Violation
The World Trade Organization Tuesday said the US violated international trade rules in the way it calculated tariffs on Canadian imports of softwood lumber in a key dispute ruling published on the WTO website. The decision also provided a boost to the US’s use of a controversial methodology used when calculating anti-dumping duties on Canadian…
