U.S. hiring picked up unexpectedly in December as employers added 256,000 jobs, another sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of high interest rates.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week jumped to its highest level in a year, which analysts are saying is more likely a result of Hurricane Helene — and the Boeing strike — than a broader softening in the labor market.

U.S. construction spending fell 0.3% in May.

The U.S. government’s budget deficit surged to an all-time high of $1.7 trillion for the first six months of this budget year.

The Treasury Department reported Wednesday, March 10, 2021, that the October through February deficit was 68% larger than the $624.5 billion deficit recorded during the same period last year. The Treasury Department reported Wednesday that the October through February deficit was 68% larger than the $624.5 billion deficit recorded during the same period last year. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the deficit for the budget year that ends on Sept. 30 will be $2.3 trillion. However, that estimate does not include the cost of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief measure, which cleared Congress on Wednesday. Nancy Vanden Houten, senior economist at Oxford Economics, said she estimated the latest relief measure will drive this year’s deficit up to $3.4 trillion.

FILE - This Aug. 11, 2019 file photo shows Visa credit cards in New Orleans. The Federal Reserve reported Friday, March 5, 2021 that consumer borrowing fell by $1.3 billion in January, the first setback since a $9 billion decline in August. The Federal Reserve reported Friday that consumer borrowing fell by $1.3 billion in January, the first setback since a $9 billion decline in August. The weakness came from a $9.9 billion decline in borrowing in the category that covers credit cards. AdThe drop in borrowing in January meant total consumer credit in the Fed report dipped by 0.4% to $4.18 trillion.

The U.S. government's budget deficit hit $735.7 billion through the first four months of the budget year, an all-time high for the period, as a pandemic-induced recession cut into tax revenues while spending on COVID relief measures sent outlays soaring. The Treasury Department reported Wednesday that the deficit so far for the budget year that began Oct. 1 is 89% higher than the $389.2 billion deficit run up in the same period a year ago. One of the big spending categories last month included $139 billion for another round of individual economic relief payments authorized by the $900 billion relief measure Congress passed in late December. All the spending for COVID relief sent the budget deficit for the 2020 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 to a record $3.1 trillion. All the deficit spending has pushed the amount of public debt to levels not seen since the end of World War II.

Spending on U.S. construction projects increased 0.9% in November as strength in home building offset weakness in other parts of the construction industry. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)WASHINGTON – U.S. construction spending rose a moderate 1% in December as the number of new homes offset a sustained weakness in nonresidential construction. While home construction is gaining, there was a 1.7% decline in nonresidential construction, which had declines in hotel and motel construction and in the category that includes shopping centers. Residential construction was up 20.7% over December 2019 with spending on single-family homes rising 23.5% while spending on apartment construction was up 17.8%. By contrast, nonresidential construction was down 9.8% from December 2019 with hotel and motel construction down 24.6% and office building down 3.3%.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. government's deficit in the first two months of the budget year ran 25.1% higher than the same period a year ago as spending to deal with the COVID pandemic soared while tax revenues fell. The Treasury Department reported Thursday that with two months gone in the budget year, the deficit totaled $429.3 billion, up from $343.3 billion in last year's October-November period. Spending for the first two months of the budget year, which begins Oct. 1, also set a record, while the deficit over the same period was also a record. Without taking into account further relief measures, the Congressional Budget Office has forecast that this year’s deficit will total $1.8 trillion and will remain above $1 trillion each year through 2030. Before last year’s $3.1 trillion deficit, the record-holder was a $1.4 trillion shortfall in 2009, when the government was fighting to lift the country out of a deep recession caused by the 2008 financial crisis.