U.S. Job Gains Lowest Since September 2010

U.S. Federal Reserve officials’ decision whether to raise interest rates again this month just got tougher with news of the weakest job gains since September 2010.The unemployment rate fell by 0.3 percentage point to 4.7% in May, and nonfarm employers added just 38,000 workers, the Labor Departme...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • June 3, 2016

Global Economy Stuck in Low-Growth Trap: OECD

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has downgraded its forecast for economic growth, saying the global economy is stuck in a “low-growth trap” that governments urgently need to address through comprehensive national fiscal initiatives.In its latest Global Economic Outlook, t...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • June 2, 2016

Explore the Trendline➔

Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

Productive Idea: A Five-Hour Workday?

It’s been just over 100 years since Henry Ford ignited a labor revolution — and throttled up his company’s productivity — by, in part, introducing the eight-hour workday to his some 14,000 employees.Now, a much-smaller enterprise is borrowing a page from that history.One year ago today, during a ...

By David McCann • June 1, 2016

U.S. Economic Growth Revised Upward to 0.8%

The U.S. economy’s growth in the first quarter was not as slow as originally estimated, with a strong housing market helping to offset tepid business investment.The Commerce Department on Friday reported that GDP grew at an annual rate of 0.8%. Despite the upward revision from the government’s ea...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 30, 2016

U.S. Household Finances Show Modest Uptick

The financial well-being of U.S. households continued a modest improvement last year but even a small-scale financial disruption could be tough for nearly half of them to handle, according to a Federal Reserve survey.More than two-thirds (69%) of respondents to the Fed’s 2015 Survey of Household ...

By Matthew Heller • May 26, 2016

GE Backs Saudi Efforts to Diversify Economy

General Electric is investing at least $1.4 billion in a number of industrial ventures in Saudi Arabia as the kingdom tries to reduce its dependence on oil production.The company said it was collaborating with Saudi Arabian Industrial Investments Co. and other entities to support Saudi Arabia’s e...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 23, 2016

Metric of the Month: Sales Forecast Errors

There’s an unmistakable buzz in the business community today about big data and business analytics and how the two of them can be used to help marketing people destroy the competition and score big revenue gains. So where does finance come in? Is the financial planning and analysis (FP&A) exp...

By Mary C. Driscoll • May 17, 2016

U.S. Producer Prices Edge Up 0.2% in April

Prices on U.S. goods and services rose slightly in April, the first increase since January and a possible sign that inflation is firming.The Producer Price Index for final demand increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% last month, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Str...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 13, 2016

Top 10 Bad Management Behaviors

Admittedly, when one reflects on the most significant bad management behavior, thoughts of Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco come to mind. And rightfully so: that list is full of criminal behavior that should absolutely be avoided. But there is another list of very undesirable managerial actions that don...

By Gregory V. Milano • May 11, 2016

U.S. Consumers Expect 2.6% Rise in Inflation

U.S. consumers’ expectations for inflation edged higher last month, again clearing the target the U.S. Federal Reserve has set as a guide for its monetary policy.Consumers polled for the New York Fed’s latest Survey of Consumer Expectations on average expect prices to rise 2.6% over the next year...

By Matthew Heller • May 9, 2016

U.S. Job Gains Fall to Lowest Level in 7 Months

U.S. job growth slowed sharply in April as employers apparently reacted to the sluggish economy by adding the fewest jobs since September.Nonfarm payrolls rose last month by a seasonally adjusted 160,000 — below analysts’ expectations and well off the 208,000 net new jobs added in March — the Lab...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 9, 2016

U.S. Productivity Weakness Continues in Q1

The productivity of U.S. workers dipped again in the first quarter, possibly reflecting the influx of new hires as companies built up their workforces in the wake of the recession.Nonfarm business sector labor productivity,  as measured by the average worker’s output per hour, decreased at a 1% s...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 4, 2016

U.S. Manufacturing Growth Slows in April

Growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector slowed last month but better days may be ahead with oil prices rebounding and the dollar weakening.In its latest Report On Business, the Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index fell to 50.8% last month from 51.8% in March. Economists su...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • May 2, 2016

Labor Cost Benchmark Rises Only 0.6% in Q1

The broadest measure of U.S labor costs rose modestly in the first quarter as wages continued to show weak growth despite solid employment gains.The Labor Department reported Friday that the Employment Cost Index increased 0.6% after an unrevised 0.5% gain in the fourth quarter. From a year earli...

By Matthew Heller • April 29, 2016

Unlocking Hidden Value Through ‘Ubernomics’

Imagine that on Hilton’s next analyst conference call management announces plans to spend $170 billion over the next five years to add 12,000 hotels. This would be considered an impossible feat, given that it took Hilton nearly a century to reach its current base of 4,300 hotels and it only has a...

By Barbara Gray • April 25, 2016

Brazil’s Economy Seen Shrinking 3.8% This Year

Amid what could be Brazil’s worst recession in more than a century, economists are becoming more pessimistic about the country’s economic outlook.In its weekly survey of 100 economists, Brazil’s central bank found that gross domestic product is expected to shrink 3.8% this year, compared with exp...

By Matthew Heller • April 18, 2016

U.S. Industrial Output Drops 0.6% in March

In another sign that economic growth slowed in the first quarter, U.S. industrial production fell more than expected in March, showing a 0.6% drop for a second month in a row.For the first quarter as a whole, industrial production fell at an annual rate of 2.2%, the Federal Reserve said Friday. A...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 15, 2016

Fed Survey Shows Wages Picking up in U.S.

U.S. economic activity is continuing to expand, with wages picking up in almost all of the country as the labor market strengthens, the Federal Reserve reported on Wednesday.The wage growth and signs that the oil industry may be emerging from its decline were two of the bright spots in the Fed’s ...

By Matthew Heller • April 14, 2016

LISTEN: Battling the Slow-Growth Blues [Podcast]

Tom Conine, the Fairfield University finance professor, discusses the financial havoc that being in a slow-growth environment can cause, compromising everything from cash generation to credit lines, price-to-earnings ratio, shareholder return, and working capital.Conine, also president of financi...

By CFO Editorial Staff • April 11, 2016

Manufactured Goods Orders Fall in February

In another sign that U.S. economic growth slowed further in the first quarter, new orders for manufactured goods fell 1.7% to $454 billion in February.The decline reported Monday by the Commerce Department was the third in the last four months and reversed January’s downwardly revised 1.2% increa...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 4, 2016

March Jobs Report Shows ‘Best-Case Scenario’

U.S. employment and the proportion of Americans in the labor force both showed strong growth in March, confirming perceptions that the labor market is recovering steadily from the recession.Nonfarm payrolls rose by 215,000 last month, the Labor Department reported on Friday, capping the best two-...

By Matthew Heller • April 1, 2016

How to Make Use of All That Data You Have

Enterprises of all sizes today are deluged by data. EMC estimates that the amount of data worldwide is now doubling every two years. This rapid rate of expansion is expected to further accelerate as the Internet of Things drives exponential growth in data creation and storage.Michael Clark Busine...

By Michael Clark • March 30, 2016

Durable Goods Orders Fall, But Better News on Jobs

The strong dollar and low oil prices continue to drag on the economy, as new orders for durable U.S. manufactured goods fell 2.8% in February, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The news was offset by the Labor Department’s revised report on unemployment claims dating back to 2011.The decreas...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 24, 2016

New Home Sales Up 2% on Surge in the West

U.S. homebuyers in the West fueled a rebound in new home sales last month as other regions struggled with tight supply and high prices.Sales of new single-family houses rose 2% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 512,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. January’s sales pac...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • March 23, 2016

Existing Home Sales Fall 7.1% in February

Sales of existing homes in the United States fell more sharply than expected in February as rising prices and low supply cooled off the market after a strong start to the year.The National Association of Realtors reported Monday that sales dropped 7.1% from January to an annual rate of 5.08 milli...

By Matthew Heller • March 22, 2016