1. U.S. companies added a record number of jobs overseas last year, according to a report released Tuesday.
The U.S. economy added 2.8 million jobs in 2018, marking the best performance since 1999, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the number of Americans working abroad rose at its slowest pace in nearly two decades, reflecting a shift toward outsourcing.
2. The United States lost about 100,000 manufacturing jobs over the past decade, according to a study published Monday by researchers at Northeastern University and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Manufacturing employment fell by 1.9 percent between 2008 and 2017, while non-manufacturing positions grew by 4.6 percent, according to the study.
3. The number of people employed in the U.S. service sector increased by 5.4 million workers last year, the largest increase since 1998, according to BLS data.
Service sector jobs now account for roughly 70 percent of total private-sector employment.
4. More than half of American households have no savings whatsoever, according to a survey conducted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
The FDIC said 56 percent of households had less than $1,000 in liquid assets, including cash, checking accounts, money market funds and bonds.
5. A new analysis shows that the average hourly wage for production and nonsupervisory employees was $23.54 in May, down 0.1 percent from April’s reading.
Hourly wages were unchanged from March, when they stood at $23.56.
6. The number of unemployed Americans edged up slightly in June, reaching 6.6 million, according to government figures released Friday.
That’s up from 6.5 million in May, but still below the peak of 10.0 million reached in October 2009.
7. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4 percent in July, the highest level since September 1983.
It was driven higher by a jump in the labor force participation rate, which measures those who are either working or looking for work.
