Bureau of Labor figures show manufacturing employment fell by 52,000 in July and has declined by 2.0 million since the recession began. Retail trade employment declined by 44,000 and wholesale trade fell by 19,000. Transportation and warehousing also lost 22,000 jobs.

Employment in professional & ,business services, and financial activities continued to trend down in July.

Health care employment increased by 20,000 in July, about in line with the average monthly gain for the first half of this year but down from an average monthly increase of 30,000 during 2008. Employment in leisure and hospitality has been little changed over the past 3 months.

July 2009 earnings by industry sector

American home sales also declined in January with some buyers waiting to see how details of the economic stimulus package would affect them. At the same time, inventories fell to a two-year low.

Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors (NAR) chief economist, said there was understandable hesitation by some house buyers. “Given so much stimulus package discussion in January, some would-be buyers simply sat out for clarity and certainty on the nature of housing stimulus,” he said. “The housing market will soon get a lift from very favourable buying conditions – not only from improved affordability, but also from the stimulus of an $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit, and higher conforming loan limits that will allow more people to tap into 50-year low mortgage rates.”

NAR estimates the impact of the stimulus package and lower interest rates on the housing market to be about 900,000 additional home sales in 2009 compared to conditions before the stimulus package. Inventory is expected to fall below an 8-month supply by the year end, which would be consistent with house price stabilisation.

Yun said it will take a while for the stimulus to show in housing data. From the time a buyer starts looking for a home until it is reported as a closed sale can take as long as five months: a median of 10 weeks to search and make an offer, about 6 weeks to close the transaction and up to 4 weeks to collect and report the data. “This means improvement from the economic stimulus isn’t likely to show as closed home sales before summer, although we may see an earlier lift from lower mortgage interest rates,” he said.

Significant local market variations continue. “A majority of markets experienced sales declines of more than 20 percent from a year ago, but some markets appeared to have reached the tipping point of accelerating home buying,” Yun said. “For example, home sales in Las Vegas have more than doubled with some reports of multiple bids.”

Regionally, existing home sales in the Northeast were 23.8 percent lower than January 2008. The average home price in the Northeast was $228,200 down 14.7 percent from a year ago.

Existing home sales in the Midwest were 16.7 percent below a year ago and the average home price in the Midwest was $138,100,  which is 6.8 percent lower than January 2008.

In the South, existing house sales were 15.9 percent below January 2008. The average house price in the South was $152,100, down 7.4 percent from a year earlier.

Existing home sales in the West were unchanged from December and were 29.0 percent stronger than a year ago. The average home price in the West was $220,000, which is 25.5 percent below January 2008.

According to The Dallas News, there are approximately 20,000 foreign-born people enlisted in the US military, and that number is expected to grow with the Government’s expansion of its recruitment programme.

The pilot programme will work much the same as a skilled migration programme as seen in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.  The US military is in need of medical skills – doctors and nurses – in areas such as Afghanistan, and will have 1,000 places to be filled for its first year.

Michael Aytes, the acting deputy director of the federal citizenship agency, said the programme is likely to be successful in terms of recruitment, purely because of the citizenship draw card.

Immediately after enlistment, the new recruits can apply for the citizenship process, Aytes said. “It is a wonderful inducement. They are really trying to find ways to reach out and get additional specialty skills,” he said.

These statistics are from Geographical Mobility: 2007, a series of tables that describe the movement of people in the United States. The tables include data on why people moved, types of moves, distance moved and the characteristics of those who moved in 2007.

The Northeast had the lowest moving rate (9 percent), followed by the Midwest (13 percent), the South (14 percent) and the West (15 percent). The moving rates for the South and the West were not significantly different.

Housing-related issues – such as the desire to own a home or to live in a better neighbourhood – were the most common reasons given for moving (42 percent), followed by family-related issues (30 percent), employment reasons (21 percent) and other (7 percent). For those moving to the U.S. from abroad, more people listed employment as their reason (52 percent) than any other.

Of the 12.3 million people who moved to another county, the largest group moved less than 50 miles (42 percent); 22 percent moved more than 500 miles.

The black population had the highest moving rate (17 percent) among race and ethnic groups, followed by Hispanics (16 percent), Asians (15 percent) and non-Hispanic whites (12 percent).

Other findings included:

• Among movers in metropolitan areas, principal cities experienced a net loss of 1.9 million people in 2007. In contrast, the suburbs had a net gain of 2 million people.
• About 1.2 million people moved to the United States from abroad. Of that group, 93 percent moved to metropolitan areas.
• About 52 percent moved to principal cities, while 42 percent moved to the suburbs.
• People who were ages 20 to 24 and 25 to 29 had the highest moving rates (27 percent and 26 percent) in 2007. The majority in both age groups moved within the same county (66 percent and 63 percent). Neither of the comparisons within these age groups was statistically different from the other.
• Of those who moved within the same county (ages 20 to 24 and 25 to 29), the main reason for moving was housing related (45 percent and 52 percent).
• People who were separated and people who were married with their spouse absent were the most likely to move, while those who were widowed were the least likely to move. People who were never married were more than twice as likely to move as people who were married with their spouse present.
• Nearly one-third (29 percent) of renters changed residences between 2006 and 2007, compared with about one in 15 who lived in owner-occupied housing (7 percent).
• For the population 16 and over, those who were unemployed (23 percent) were more likely to move than those who were employed (14 percent) or those not in the labour force (10 percent).