Preferred Financial Services

September 2, 2010, Andover Massachusetts – After what has turned out to be a really rough end to the summer for the US economy, the changeover to September appears to be bringing with it some encouraging if not upbeat news. Data released today covers all the important sectors including unemployment, retail sales, productivity, as well as home purchases. While the data does not indicate a strong rebound is imminent, it does point to the fact that we may have hit the bottom of what has been a tough 2 month stretch.

New unemployment claims dropped for a 2^nd straight week by more than was expected. New claims fell to 472,000 last week, 3,000 less than what was expected. While this is still significantly higher than we need to create consistent job growth it is encouraging that we are trending down not up. As the economy cooled over the past 3 months many had expected another round of massive layoffs, but this data along with the new productivity numbers indicates this is an unlikely possibility. The productivity report released by the Labor Department indicates that worker productivity fell in the spring by the largest amount in over 4 years. In a good economy this would mean more cutbacks are needed, but in our current situation this indicates that current workers are being overloaded with work and are thus not able to perform at the levels they previously had. The logical conclusion to this would be that firms will need to start hiring again in the fall to remain competitive on the international market.

Retailers indicated that sales rose surprisingly in August as analysts expected near zero growth due to the continued uncertainty. While most of the gain can be attributed to steep discounting that is used during the summer months to attract customers, a part of the gain has to be attributed to consumers who are sick and tired of sitting at home not spending their hard earned money. As the summer fades and the fall begins we can only hope that more people will begin to start shopping again as the economy improves. On top of this, after a dismal summer of housing reports indicating that the sector continued to weaken data released today showed that existing home purchases rose in July. While the rate is no better than it was a year ago it again indicates that we may have hit the bottom there as well.

While the data released over the past 2 weeks has not been great it is starting to look like we may have hit bottom. The double dip recession never came to fruition, a 2^nd round of large scale layoffs never came to be, and consumer spending has been making a comeback. Readers, where do you see us heading? Do you believe we are out of the woods or is this just another momentary up tick before more bad news is relapsed over the next few weeks?

Preferred Financial Services is a debt reduction firm certified by the CFC (Center for Financial Certifications) and accredited by U.S.O.B.A. (United States Organizations for Bankruptcy Alternatives). Headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, Preferred Financial Services has been a leader in the debt reduction industry since 2003. Preferred Financial Services has acquired some of the best experience in the industry over the past 7 years. In 2009 alone Preferred Financial Services reduced over $16.5 million worth of consumer debt for just $6.4 million, for a savings of about 60%- and over 2,900 accounts were settled on behalf of their clients.

For more information, please visit www.pfsdebtrelief.com or follow us on our blog at www.pfsdebtrelief.com/blog/ .

Contact:

Stephan Tavernini

Marketing Coordinator

Certified IAPDA Debt Arbitrator

Preferred Financial Services

stavernini@pfs1.net

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