Economy Now
Americans spend big on Fido and Fluffy
May 21, 2013: 10:44 AM ET
Americans spend more on their Fidos and Fluffies each year than they spend on booze or men's clothing.
People shelled out an average of $502 annually on their pets in 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That compares to the $456 they spent on alcohol and $404 they spent on men and boys' clothes.
Just pet food alone cost the average household $183 -- which is more than folks spend on chicken, cereal, bread and candy. Vet services adds another $143.
Though families cut back on their overall spending during the recession and ate out at restaurants less, their spending on pet food remained constant.
Nearly three-quarters of American households own pets. There are about 218 million pets nationwide, not including several million fish.
Not surprisingly, married couples with no children living at home spend the most on pets, while single folks spent the least.
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One spot where government spending is going up
Amid constant stories of sequester-related cuts, here's a rare place where the government is increasing its spending: The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently ramped up its monthly survey of businesses, leading to the highest response rate on record for the February jobs report.
Perhaps that's one reason the revisions were so large.
Here's what happened: When the Labor Department released the jobs report Friday morning, it wasn't just the April numbers that came MORE
Annalyn Kurtz - May 3, 2013 5:51 PM ET -
For every job opening, there are 3 unemployed Americans
The number of job openings rose in February to 3.9 million, according to the Labor Department's JOLTS report released Tuesday. This is good news if it translates into new hiring in the next few months.
About 12 million Americans were still unemployed in February, which means for every job opening, there are roughly 3.1 unemployed workers.
By this metric, you can see that the job market has improved substantially since 2009, when MORE
Annalyn Kurtz - Apr 9, 2013 2:59 PM ET -
Unions in trouble
The slow, steady decline of unions continued in 2012, when membership shrank by nearly 400,000.
States kept chipping away at unions' power, with the latest blow coming in Michigan, where workers at union-represented employers can now forgo paying dues.
CNNMoney takes a look at unions' recent troubles:
Membership peaked in 1953 and is now at its lowest level in nearly a century.
Women bore the brunt of the decline.
Unions remain more prevalent in government MORE
Tami Luhby - Jan 28, 2013 5:34 PM ET -
Communists in the Labor Department? Really?
Last time I checked, 2012 isn't the year of the Third Red Scare. Maybe I'm wrong?
Imagine my surprise when I received a press release in my email this morning, complaining about a woman with ties to "radical Jewish" and "Communist" views infiltrating the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I had to double check my calendar. Yep, it's still 2012.
This inflammatory allegation was not based on the person's career and academic record MORE
Annalyn Kurtz - Jul 19, 2012 3:08 PM ET
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| Latest Report | Next Update |
|---|---|
| Home prices | Aug 28 |
| Consumer confidence | Aug 28 |
| GDP | Aug 29 |
| Manufacturing (ISM) | Sept 4 |
| Jobs | Sept 7 |
| Inflation (CPI) | Sept 14 |
| Retail sales | Sept 14 |
