Economics and Statistics Administration

U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson issued the following statement today on the release of 2011 international trade numbers and the December 2011 U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services report by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis. Today’s report showed that the U.S. remains on course to reach President Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI) goal of doubling exports by the end of 2014. U.S. goods and services exports in 2011 were up 14.5 percent or $265.5 billion from the same period of 2010 to reach a record $2.1 trillion, with record levels of exports in most major merchandise categories. That follows a 16.7 percent overall increase in 2010. U.S.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama laid out an ambitious goal to train 2 million workers with the necessary skills to land a job.  What are those skills in a 21^st century economy?  As we have written previously in this blog, the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) play a critical role in America’s global economic leadership and are vital to securing the highest quality jobs of the future, to decreasing the gender wage gap, and to ensuring America retains global economic leadership through innovation and technology.  (Co-posted on DOC website:ht

Some good news on the employment front! The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their January 2012 report on the employment situation showing private sector employment increased 257,000 -- the largest increase since April 2011 (264,000).  In addition, private sector employment gains were revised upward by 58,000 in November and 8,000 in December.  Over the past 23 months, the private sector has added jobs every month for a total of nearly 3.7 million jobs.  

One of the first available indicators about the U.S. economy in 2012 is the measure of retail sales of light vehicles and the news is good: January saw new sales just under 14.2 million (at an annual rate), up from 13.6 in December 2011.  This is highest monthly level since May 2008 (even higher than the August 2009 spike, or as I like to call it “Mount Cash-for-Clunkers”).

Like many other economic indicators (such as GDP, Employment, and Personal Income) construction spending finished the year on an upward trend as we move into 2012.  Total construction spending in December 2011 was $816.4 billion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, up 1.5 percent from the revised Nove