2013 Economic Growth: Soft in the Middle
· The April employment report indicated that nonfarm payrolls rose 165,000 and the unemployment rate edged slightly lower to 7.5 percent.
· Personal income and spending data for March indicated that consumers continued to spend even with only modest increases in income growth.
· The ISM Manufacturing Index fell to 50.7 in April from 52.0 in March. Even with the weakness in the headline reading, the new orders component edged higher for the month.