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Article: Laboratory equipment/distributor index continues to grow in May.
- Article from:
- Instrument Business Outlook
- Article date:
- May 31, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Strategic Directions International Inc. (SDI). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The US economic news in May was decidedly mixed. In the early May meeting, the Federal Reserve decided to leave the federal funds rate for overnight loans between banks unchanged at 1.75%, a 40-year low. The discount rate remains, 1.25%. Unemployment in April rose to 6%, the highest it has been since 1994. The US Department of Labor reported that first quarter 2002 non-farm worker productivity, a measure of worker output of goods and services per hour outside the farm sector, grew at its fastest pace since the second quarter of 1983, racing forward 8.6%. This is a clear sign that businesses made do with their current workers rather than taking on new hires.
The ...