BULLETS Current business highlights The value of residential permits in Canada was up 7.0 percent in June over May to $5.3 billion, with gains posted in six provinces. The total value of all building permits over the same period increased 6.2 percent to $8.1 billion. —Statistics Canada Total investment in building construction in Canada increased 60.1 percent to $13.4 billion in May, partially rebounding from large declines in April. —Statistics Canada Total spending on video game hardware, software, accessories and game cards amounted to $1.2 billion US in June 2020, the highest June figure since 2009, when Nintendo’s Wii console was flying off the shelves. —Statista Use of private vehicles in Canada declined from 75 to 67 percent in June. The decrease in the proportion of workers using public transit fell from 13 percent to 3 percent — half the rate of those who walked or bicycled to work (6 percent). In June, 22 percent of Canadians were working from home and slightly less than 2 percent were using another mode of transportation. —Statistics Canada U.S. imports of assembled flooring panels grew by 20 percent in May but were still at a level nearly 30 percent down from May 2019. Imports from China are barely half that of 2019 year-to-date, imports from Canada are even with last year, and imports from Vietnam are up 10 percent through May. —ITTO While June’s Interior Design Billing Index (IDBI) of 49.2 still remains in contractionary territory, it did add 7.9 points to May’s performance of 42.3 (any score above 50 represents expansion and below 50 represents contraction in billings). There has also been a 30-point gain since April’s all-time IDBI low of 18.7. —ASID The Hispanic population of the U.S. as of July 1, 2019 was 60.6 million, making people of this origin the nation’s largest ethnic or racial minority. Hispanics constituted 18.5 percent of that nation’s total population. —Vintage 2019 Population Estimates A poll conducted between July 20 and August 2 found that 35 percent of American adults would avoid a free, FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccine. According to poll demographics, middle-aged Republicans were the most reluctant to take the vaccine. —Gallup
In the first quarter of 2020, e-commerce accounted for 11.5 percent of total retail sales in the U.S. (excluding food services sales), the second highest share ever and the highest for a non-holiday quarter. The first quarter of 2019 was 10.4 percent and only 0.8 percent in the same period of 2000. —U.S. Census Bureau Employment in Canada rose by 419,000 (2.4 percent) in July, compared with 953,000 (5.8 percent) in June. Combined with gains of 290,000 in May, this brought employment to within 1.3 million (-7.0 percent) of its pre-Covid-19 February level. —Statistics Canada The U.S. Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score for June was 40.0 compared to 32.0 in May. The May ABI score indicates that a significant share of architecture firms still saw their billings decline from May to June, however the share reporting declines slowed significantly. Index scores for new project inquiries and new design contracts also showed signs of stabilizing, posting scores of 49.3 and 44.0 respectively. —American Institute of Architects U.S. imports of hardwood flooring continued to slide, falling by 3 percent in May. Imports from China and Malaysia were up 51 percent and 90 percent in May, while imports from Indonesia were down by 72 percent. Still, year-to-date imports from China are down 58 percent and imports from Malaysia trail by 67 percent, while imports from Indonesia are up by 13 percent through May. —ITTO Year-on-year value of May imports of wooden assembled flooring in Japan dropped 30 percent and month-onmonth imports were down 19 percent. —Japan Ministry of Finance According to a recent internet security threat report, 55 percent of emails received by employees in 2018 were categorized as spam and 1 in 412 emails was considered malicious, i.e. potentially harmful. The top subject line descriptions were “Bill” (15.7 percent), “email delivery failure” (13.3 percent), “package delivery” (2.4 percent) and “legal/ law enforcement” (1. percent). —Symantec Payroll employment in the U.S. increased by 1.8 million in July over the previous month. —U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Canada’s floorcovering magazine
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