Economy's health all a matter of employment and productivity.

When measuring the health of the U.S. economy, it is important to consider both the change in employment levels and the change in productivity, according to the current issue of the Blue Chip Job Growth Update.

"Changes have been occurring in the U.S. economy over the last year and Gross Domestic Product, the most common measure of the overall economy, has shown some volatility," commented Dawn McLaren, an economist with the JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center, which publishes the monthly Job Growth Update and its quarterly companion, the National Consensus Forecast of Labor Employment, Compensation and Productivity.

"While employment according to the establishment survey has continued to grow, albeit at a slower pace than previously, productivity has taken a much sharper turn to the downside," McLaren said.

For the first quarter of 2007 compared to the first quarter of 2006, productivity growth stands at 0.7%.

"This is much lower than the first quarter figures for 2005 and 2006--2.5% and 2.1% respectively," McLaren noted.

The Blue Chip panel's consensus forecast for the annual rate of productivity growth was down compared to the previous quarter's forecast, dropping from 1.9 to 1.8% for 2007 and from 2.2 to 2.0 % for 2008.

McLaren pointed out that this adjustment is likely due to the recently revised productivity growth estimates released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Among the Blue Chip Job Growth highlights:

* The U.S. economy grew by 1,982,000 nonagricultural jobs in June 2007 over June 2006, a 1.5 percent increase.

* Utah holds the No. 1 rank among the states for the same period, with a 4.6% increase representing 55,100 jobs.

* In the metro markets with a work force of over 1 million, the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California metropolitan area had the highest rate of growth in nonagricultural employment for June 2007 over June 2006, posting a 3.5% gain, which represented 44,900 jobs; in markets with under 1 million workers, the top job growth was in the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi metro area, with an 8.2% gain (8,200 jobs). The Blue Chip Job Growth Update has been the first-to-user source of complete federal employment data since its inception in 1992. It presents data compiled from the U.S. Bureau of Labor in an easy-to-read format, permitting state-to-state comparisons within 24 hours of the release of the data. The National Consensus Forecast of Labor Employment, Compensation and Productivity, which appears quarterly in the Job Growth Update, contains information from a panel of leading economists.

The Blue Chip Job Growth Update is available online to subscribers. A sample issue and subscription information are available online at http://wpcarey.asu.edu/jgu.