The Las Vegas Sun reported that, “A jump in repossession activity in April caused Nevada to reclaim its dubious No. 1 position as the state with the highest rate of foreclosures, data released Wednesday show.

“Foreclosure information collector RealtyTrac of Irvine, Calif., said that after just one month in the No. 2 spot trailing Arizona in March, Nevada moved to the top of the list in April in part because of a 15 percent increase in foreclosure starts compared to March.

“Before moving to No. 2 in March, Nevada had led the nation in foreclosures for 62 consecutive months with its overheated housing market hit especially hard by the recession.

“In April, Arizona moved to No. 4 on the national list while California — a big feeder market for Nevada’s casino industry — advanced to No. 2 with one in every 351 homes there receiving a foreclosure filing.” Click here for the full story in the Las Vegas Sun.

Employers in the private nonfarm sector initiated 1,077 mass layoff events in the first quarter of 2012 that resulted in the separation of 182,101 workers from their jobs for at least 31 days, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the year, total extended mass layoff events and associated worker separations were down from 1,490 and 225,456, respectively. Total events reached their lowest first quarter levels since 2006, while manufacturing sector events and separations declined to their lowest levels in program history (with data available back to 1995.) First quarter 2012 layoff data are preliminary and are subject to revision.

Industry Distribution of Extended Layoffs

Over the year ending in the first quarter of 2012, the number of private nonfarm extended mass layoff events declined in 16 of the 18 major industry sectors. The manufacturing and the construction sectors experienced the largest declines in the numbers of worker separations over the year. Fourteen of the 21 manufacturing subsectors experienced over-the-year decreases in the number of layoff events.

Events and separations in the manufacturing sector declined to their lowest levels in program history (210 and 28,393, respectively). Thirty-six percent of manufacturing employers with an extended mass layoff event in the first quarter of 2012 anticipated recalling at least some of the displaced workers. The construction sector had 225 extended mass layoff events and 26,795 separations, primarily due to contract completion. This sector accounted for 21 percent of the layoff events and 15 percent of the related separations during the first quarter of 2012.

Reasons for Extended Layoffs

Business demand factors, primarily contract completion, accounted for 39 percent of the events and 44 percent of related separations in the private nonfarm sector during the first quarter of 2012. Layoffs due to the completion of seasonal work accounted for 28 percent of extended mass layoff events and 24 percent of related separations during the quarter.

Movement of Work

In the first quarter of 2012, 29 extended mass layoffs involved movement of work and were associated with 3,726 worker separations, a program low for both figures. Sixty-two percent of the events related to movement of work were from manufacturing industries. Employers cited organizational changes as the economic reason for layoff in 52 percent of the events involving movement of work. Among workers affected by the movement of work, the largest proportions were in the West.

The 29 events with movement of work for the first quarter involved 41 identifiable relocations of work actions. Employers were able to provide information on the specific number of worker separations for 33 of these actions. Among these actions, most were domestic reassignments and involved work moving within the same company.

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Building permits in April 2012 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 715,000, down 7.0 percent from the revised March rate but up 23.7 percent from April 2011. Housing starts in April 2012 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 717,000, up 2.6 percent from March’s revised estimate and up 29.9 percent from April 2011.

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 715,000. This is 7.0 percent below the revised March rate of 769,000, but is 23.7 percent above the revised April 2011 estimate of 578,000.

Single-family authorizations in April were at a rate of 475,000; this is 1.9 percent above the revised March figure of 466,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 217,000 in April.

Privately-owned housing starts in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 717,000. This is 2.6 percent above the revised March estimate of 699,000 and is 29.9 percent above the revised April 2011 rate of 552,000.

Privately-owned housing completions in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 651,000. This is 10.0 percent above the revised March estimate of 592,000 and is 20.1 percent above the revised April 2011 rate of 542,000.

Single-family housing completions in April were at a rate of 489,000; this is 11.4 percent above the revised March figure of 439,000. The April rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 158,000.

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The U.S. Department of the Treasury today released Treasury International Capital (TIC) data for March 2012. The next release, which will report on data for April 2012, is scheduled for June 15, 2012.
The sum total in March of all net foreign acquisitions of long-term securities, short-term U.S. securities, and banking flows was a monthly net TIC outflow of $49.9 billion. Of this, net foreign private outflows were $57.7 billion, and net foreign official inflows were $7.8 billion.

Foreign residents increased their holdings of long-term U.S. securities in March – net purchases were $22.3 billion. Net sales by private foreign investors were $4.0 billion, and net purchases by foreign official institutions were $26.3 billion.

At the same time, U.S. residents decreased their holdings of long-term foreign securities, with net sales of $13.9 billion.

Taking into account transactions in both foreign and U.S. securities, the net foreign purchases of long-term securities were $36.2 billion.After including adjustments, such as estimates of unrecorded principal payments to foreigners on U.S. asset-backed securities, the overall net foreign acquisition of long-term securities is estimated to have been $19.0 billion in March.

Foreign residents decreased their holdings of U.S. Treasury bills by $2.7 billion.Foreign resident holdings of all dollar-denominated short-term U.S. securities and other custody liabilities decreased by $9.4 billion.
Banks’ own net dollar-denominated liabilities to foreign residents decreased by $59.5 billion.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that the combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for March, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,241.0 billion, up 0.6 percent from February 2012 and up 5.8 percent from March 2011.

Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,580.2 billion, up 0.3 percent from February 2012 and up 6.6 percent from March 2011.

The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of March was 1.27. The March 2011 ratio was 1.26.

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