The U.S. Census Bureau reported a downward trend across the housing market for May 2026, with building permits, housing starts, and housing completions all declining compared to the previous month. There were 1.413 million building permits issued, a 0.7% decrease from April and a 0.2% decrease from May 2025. Single-family building permits ticked up 0.6%, while authorizations for units in buildings with five or more units reached a rate of 474,000. Meanwhile, housing starts fell significantly by 15.4% to 1.177M compared to the previous month and dropped 8.7% year-over-year, as single-family starts dipped 1.9% to 882,000. Housing completions also declined by 8.1% from April to 1.313M, representing a 14.2% drop compared to May 2025. Turning to the backlog, the number of houses approved for construction but not yet started increased 4.7% to 265K units, with the backlog for single-family housing rising 2.1% to 144K.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that advance U.S. retail and food services sales totaled $763.7 billion in May 2026, rising (+0.9%) from the prior month. On a year-over-year basis, total retail and food services sales increased (+6.9%), while sales for the March 2026 through May 2026 period were up (+5.3%) versus the same period last year. Retail sales, which are primarily goods and are not adjusted for inflation, reflected broad-based monthly momentum, led by gains in motor vehicles and parts dealers (+1.2%), gasoline stations (+3.4%), and nonstore retailers (+1.5%). Most major industries expanded, though minor monthly decreases were recorded at electronics & appliance stores and department stores. Over the past year, one of the strongest category gains came from nonstore retailers (+12.2%), supporting the broader advance in sales activity.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that advance seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims totaled 226,000 for the week ending June 13, 2026, a decrease of 4,000 from the prior week’s level which was revised higher to 230,000. The four-week moving average rose to 223,250 (+4,000), while the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ending June 6 held steady at 1.2%. On an unadjusted basis, actual initial claims fell (-4.1%) to 219,509, staying below the 234,859 filings recorded in the same week in 2025. Advance state-level data showed 16 states and territories reported higher initial claims, while 37 recorded declines. Total seasonally adjusted insured unemployment increased by 24,000 to 1,810,000 following a downward revision to the prior week’s level of 1,786,000. For the week ending May 30, total continued claims across all programs rose by 40,013 to 1,705,644, remaining below the 1,854,552 claims filed in the same week last year.