91ÊÓƵ

The Labor Department reported March 18 that its producer price index rose 0.7% from January, and 3.4% from February 2025. 

The U.S. economy, hobbled by last fall’s 43-day government shutdown, advanced at an unexpectedly sluggish 0.7% annual rate from October through December, the Commerce Department reported.

With a key shipping route cut off, oil prices have surged — from less than $70 a barrel on Feb. 27 to nearly $120 early March 9 before settling closer to $90. They’ve taken diesel and gasoline prices with them.

The job market had been expected to rebound this year from a lackluster 2025 when the economy, buffeted by President Donald Trump's erratic tariff policies, generated just 15,000 jobs a month.

The president can reuse tariff powers he deployed in his first term and can reach for others, including one that dates to the Great Depression.

The report included major revisions that reduced the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000, less than half the previously reported 584,000 and the weakest since the pandemic year of 2020.

GDP rose at a 4.4% annual pace in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported Jan. 22, up from 3.8% in the April-June quarter and from the 4.3% growth the department initially estimated.

The Labor Department reported Jan. 14 that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 0.2% in November from October and 3% from a year earlier.

The Labor Department reported that its CPI was up 2.7% in November from a year earlier. Energy prices, driven up by higher fuel oil prices, rose 4.2%, and so-called core inflation was up 2.6%.

The world economy has proven surprisingly durable in the face of President Donald Trump’s trade wars, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Dec. 2.