September saw NFL and college football starting to come back to life, bringing a much-needed boost to many people’s spirits as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Along with many other Americans, I spent last weekend cheering on the guys from my fantasy football team. 

In addition to millions of people becoming ill, the COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching consequences for our economy. We’ve seen millions of job losses. Businesses have watched their profits plummet, leading some to close permanently. The stock market has experienced dizzying volatility. A key contributor to the economic impacts has...

The Census Bureau released the Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services, August 2020 report last week. Adjusted for seasonal variations, advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for August 2020 were $537.5 billion. That’s an increase of 0.6 percent from July and a 2.6 percent boost versus August of last year....

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released the selected services estimates for the second quarter of 2020. The survey revealed that total revenue for the second quarter of 2020 (seasonally adjusted, but not adjusted for price changes) was $3,650.4 billion. That’s down 9.1 percent as compared to first quarter of 2020 and down 9.3 percent...

We see you, accounting marketer. We understand that the pressure is on to figure out new ways to set your firm apart from competitors. We also know that you are constantly expected to do more with less, as though you were a magician pulling rabbits out of your hat!

We have to find glimmers of hope where we can lately, and the most recent jobs report is no exception. In August, the U.S economy added 1.4 million jobs — an impressive sounding figure — but the truth of the matter is that we are still at a deficit as compared to pre-COVID-19 numbers. 

Last week, we shared some positive news about residential construction in the U.S. For July, sales of new single-family houses topped 901,000, 13.9 percent above the revised June 2020 rate of 791,000. July’s numbers were also an impressive 36.3 percent above the July 2019 rate of 661,000 units sold. 

The housing market offers one of the few bright spots in the U.S. economy with homebuilders seeing record-setting sales numbers. The U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released July’s new home sales data this week that bolsters this trend.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released their July 2020 Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services report. Adjusted for seasonal variation, July sales totaled $536.0 billion, which represents a 1.2 percent increase over June’s numbers ($529.4 billion). This marks the third consecutive month with increases in U.S. consumer...

On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released their latest data on estimated retail and food services sales for June. Estimated numbers are based on early reports from a small sampling of companies selected from the larger Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MRTS) sample. You can view the Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services, June...