IMF: US economy poised to accelerate
IMF: US economy poised to accelerate
WASHINGTON
The U.S. economy is poised to accelerate after a dismal start to the year even though the job market won’t return to full employment until 2017.
That was the forecast offered Monday in a report by the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF noted that steady job gains and other recent data suggest that the economy is rebounding. Employers have added 200,000-plus jobs for four-straight months, and the unemployment rate has fallen to 6.3 percent. Auto sales and factory activity are increasing.
Yet growth in 2014 likely won’t top last year’s lackluster performance, the IMF says.
Dems push for rise in minimum wage
WASHINGTON
Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez teamed up with the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee to meet Monday with kitchen workers at a local restaurant and deliver a lunchtime plea for Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10.
The increase has been a top second-term political priority for President Barack Obama and his allies in Congress. Obama himself pushed the measure again Saturday in his weekly address.
However, it is stalled in the Republican-led House of Representatives.
Asked if he sees any recent movement among Republicans on the minimum wage, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said, “The Republicans are talking to us all the time about whether or not this is going to come up. I appreciate that the GOP leadership has a very hard line against [it]. ... But I think before the election, we have a very good chance of passing this.”
Domino’s introduces ‘Dom’ to take orders
NEW YORK
Domino’s is introducing its own version of Siri.
The pizza-delivery chain on Monday was introducing a function on its mobile app that lets customers place orders by speaking with a computer-generated voice named “Dom.” The rollout is part of an ongoing push by Domino’s to take business away from rivals and smaller pizza shops by offering more-convenient ways to order.
The company, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., says the updated app for iPhones and Android devices will deliver a “humanlike, conversational” experience, but notes that it will take some time to work out the kinks in the technology.
US factory output rebounded in May
WASHINGTON
U.S. manufacturing output rose in May at a solid pace, boosting hopes that the economy is expanding briskly after a dismal first three months of the year.
Americans, buoyed by steady job gains, are buying more cars, while businesses are ordering more machinery and other equipment. Those trends are fueling factory production and driving growth.
Factory output rose 0.6 percent in May after dipping 0.1 percent the previous month, the Federal Reserve said Monday. April’s figure was revised upward from an initial estimate of a 0.4 percent decline.
Associated Press