plant and equipment expenditures

The sharp employment push was also helped by the fact that new plant and equipment expenditures, another area of economic lag during the recovery, are starting to pick up.

The latest survey by the Commerce Department and the Securities & Exchange Commission, taken after the strike, showed a significant boost in industry's plans for new plant and equipment expenditures.

With private spending in the first quarter at $35 billion and plans for the rest of the year reduced only slightly, the Government announced that it now expects 1960 plant and equipment expenditures to total $36,850,000,000 v. the $37,016,000,000 earlier expected.

Moreover, plant and equipment expenditures will rise from $34 billion in 1959 to a rate of $40 billion in the fourth quarter of 1960.