Americans trimmed their spending unexpectedly in May compared with the month before, underscoring how surging inflation on daily necessities like gas is causing them to be more cautious about buying discretionary items. U.S. retail sales fell 0.3% last month, down from a revised 0.7% increase in April. Sales at furniture and home furnishings stores fell 0.9%, while sales at food stores rose 1.2%.
Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates have made their biggest one-week jump in 35 years. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reports that the 30-year rate climbed from 5.23% last week to 5.78% this week, the highest it’s been since November of 2008 during the housing crisis. The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages rose to 4.81% from 4.38% last week. A year ago, the rate was 2.24%.
North Dakota’s eight commercial service airports posted a total of 84,474 airline passenger boardings during the month of May. This is a 22% increase over last year. The available seats and flights available to the traveling public throughout North Dakota is currently still lower than pre-pandemic levels as airlines continue to report difficulties in adding capacity due to workforce challenges. The Grand Forks Airport had 7,706 passenger boardings in May.
Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as the U.S. job market remains strong in the face of rising inflation and interest rates. The Labor Department says applications for jobless aid fell by 3,000 to 229,000 for the week ending June 11. First-time applications generally represent the number of layoffs.
North Dakota’s May not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 2.1 percent. Between April 2022 and May 2022 unemployment fell by 1,780, a decrease of 17.4 percent. North Dakota typically sees a moderate decrease in unemployment numbers between April and May.
Minnesota’s unemployment rate ticked down two-tenths of a point to 2% in May 2022 – a new record low since the metric has been tracked in 1976. The decline in the unemployment rate was entirely due to people moving from unemployment to employment. The labor force participation rate rose from 68.3% to 68.4%. Minnesota has now gained jobs for eight months in a row.
The websites for both Job Service North Dakota and the North Dakota Department of Health are now accessible in 16 languages. Internet viewers can select their preferred language from a dropdown at the top of any page. The initial offerings are English, Arabic, Basque, Bosnian, Chinese, French, Hindi, Hmong, Kurdish, Nepali, Pashto, Punjabi, Somali, Spanish, Swahili and Vietnamese.
The North Dakota Public Service Commission (PSC) will hold a public hearing on June 28thregarding a proposal to construct a wind farm and associated facilities in Logan and McIntosh Counties. Badger Wind, LLC, is requesting a siting permit for the Badger Wind Project. The project would have a nameplate capacity of up to 251.6 megawatts and would consist of up to 74 wind turbines. Estimated cost of the project is $390 million.
Cities Area Transit is looking to purchase a cloud-based data warehouse system to house all of its software packages. Transportation Director Dale Bergman says the goal is to simplify National Transit Database reporting…asset management…and provide key metric dashboards for staff. The cost of the system is $234,000 with federal funds picking up 80% of the tab. The Grand Forks council will review the request Monday night.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development has announced $2.1 million in funding for three Minnesota businesses. These businesses are expanding their locations or moving to Minnesota and are expected to create 165 new jobs over the next three to five years. Cirrus Design is purchasing an existing Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) building at the Duluth Airport and converting it to a Product Development Innovation Center. The total project cost is just over $4 million and is expected to create 80 jobs. Cirrus has a plant in Grand Forks.
Revlon, the 90-year-old multinational cosmetics company, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, weighed down by debt load, disruptions to its supply chain network and surging costs. With household names like Almay to Elizabeth Arden, Revlon has been a mainstay on store shelves for decades.
Cuba has produced only about half the sugar it had projected this season and authorities acknowledge that while they will cover internal demand they will not be able to meet their international commitments. An official at the government agency that regulates sugar production says “It’s not a secret, the sector is in crisis.” Dionis Pérez says that “we have fulfilled 53% of the harvest.”
Evolve Grand Forks recently announced the selection of a new executive director. Kaelan Reedy, formerly Operations and Culture Specialist at Evolve GF, was chosen by the Evolve Grand Forks board of directors. Reedy is from Mandan, North Dakota, and recently graduated from the University of North Dakota with a degree in Political Science and Public Affairs.
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