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GF Business News: GFK…home sales & construction

By Doug Barrett Apr 18, 2021 | 3:20 PM

Newly vaccinated and armed with $1,400 stimulus checks, Americans went on a spending spree last month, buying new clothes and going out to eat again.  The Commerce Department says retail sales surged a seasonally adjusted 9.8% after dropping about 3% the month before.

 

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week to 576,000, a hopeful sign that layoffs are easing as the economy recovers from the pandemic recession.  The Labor Department said Thursday that applications plummeted 193,000 from a revised 769,000 a week earlier. Jobless claims are now down sharply from a peak of 900,000 in early January.

 

North Dakota’s March not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.8 percent. The unemployment rate fell 0.7 of a percentage point between February and March and was 1.6 percentage points higher than one year ago.  Between February 2021 and March 2021 unemployment fell by 2,645, a decrease of 12.0 percent.

 

Minnesota’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% in March, down from a revised 4.4% in February, according to numbers released today by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).  The unemployment rate decline was due to people leaving the labor force primarily from unemployment, but also from employment.

 

U.S. consumer prices increased a sharp 0.6% in March, the biggest increase since 2012, while inflation over the past year rose a sizable 2.6%. The big gains were expected to be a temporary blip and not a sign that long dormant inflation pressures were emerging.

 

A new survey of bankers suggests strong economic growth continues in rural parts of 10 Western and Plains states even though business continues to lag behind the level it was at before the coronavirus pandemic began. The overall index for the region declined slightly from March’s 71.9 but remained at a strong level of 69.  Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

 

Delta Air Lines says it lost $1.2 billion in the first quarter, but the airline thinks it can be profitable by late summer unless there’s a resurgence of COVID-19.   CEO Ed Bastian says ticket sales have been stronger in the last two weeks than at any time since the pandemic hit the U.S.

 

North Dakota’s eight commercial service airports posted a total of 72,504 airline passenger boardings.  This is an increase of almost 22,000 passengers from the previous month.  However, these passenger counts are still approximately 32% below the normal pre-pandemic levels seen in March of 2019.  A total of 6,528 passengers passed through the gates at the Grand Forks Airport.

 

McDonald’s will mandate worker training to combat harassment, discrimination and violence in its restaurants worldwide starting next year. McDonald’s has 2 million workers at 39,000 restaurants worldwide. The change is part of a larger reckoning over sexual harassment at the world’s largest burger chain.

 

Mortgage rates fell for a second straight week amid signs of economic improvement.  Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reports that the benchmark 30-year home-loan rate declined to 3.04% this week from 3.13% last week.

 

Home sales started to heat up in March.  The Grand Forks Area Association of Realtors reports 70 single family homes…townhomes…and condos exchanged hands during the month.  That was 29 more than the same month a year ago.  The average sales price in Grand Forks / East Grand Forks was $226,125 dollars.

 

The city of Grand Forks will spend over $321,000 dollars to improve the yard waste drop-off site along 5th Avenue South near DeMers Avenue.  The work consists of removing the existing pavement along 5th Avenue South, paving a new yard waste drop site and paving a new concrete sidewalk.  The city council is expected to approve the bid on Monday.  Construction will take place during the 2021 construction season.

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