U.S. Trade Deficit, Canadian Trade Surplus Got Smaller In July

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Meanwhile, here are the major economic headlines from the last week:

• According to the Department of Commerce, the United States’ goods and services trade deficit was $70.6 billion in July, down $10.2 billion from $80.9 billion in June. July exports were $259.3 billion, up $0.5 billion from June. July imports were $329.9 billion, $9.7 billion less than in June. The July decrease in the goods and services deficit reflected a decline in the goods deficit of $8.2 billion to $91.1 billion and an increase in the services surplus of $2.1 billion to $20.4 billion. Year-to-date, the goods and services deficit was up $136.6 billion, or 29 percent, from the same period in 2021.
• Canada’s overall trade surplus fell to $4.1 billion in July from $4.9 billion in June. Exports were down 2.8 percent during the month while imports fell 1.8 percent. July represented the first monthly decline in exports in 2022 and the first drop in imports since January. So far, Canada has run a trade surplus each month of this year. Click here to find all Canadian trade data.
• Employment in Canada declined by 40,000 jobs in August and the nation’s unemployment rate rose by 0.5 percentage points to 5.4 percent. Most of the job losses were in the education and construction industries. Total hours worked were unchanged from July 2022 to August 2022, but rose 3.7 percent between July 2021 and July 2022.
• According to the U.S. Labor Department, 220,000 people filed for federal unemployment benefits for the first time during the week that ended September 3, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week’s level. The four-week moving average was 233,000, a decline of 7,500 from the week before. During the week that ended August 27, 1.473 million people continued to receive jobless benefits, up 36,000 from the previous week. The four-week moving average of continuing claims was 1.439 million, up 10,750 from the prior week.