by Calculated Risk on 4/01/2011 04:30:00 PM

On Employment earlier:
• March Employment Report: 216,000 Jobs, 8.8% Unemployment Rate
• Employment Summary and Part Time Workers, Unemployed over 26 Weeks
• Employment Graph Gallery

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

Based on an estimate from Autodata Corp, light vehicle sales were at a 13.1 million SAAR in March. That is up 12% from March 2010, and down 1.2% from the sales rate last month (Feb 2011).

This graph shows the historical light vehicle sales (seasonally adjusted annual rate) from the BEA (blue) and an estimate for March (red, light vehicle sales of 13.1 million SAAR from Autodata Corp).

The second graph shows light vehicle sales since the BEA started keeping data in 1967.

Note: dashed line is current estimated sales rate. The current sales rate is finally off the bottom of the '90/'91 recession - and there were fewer registered drivers and a smaller population back then.

This was slightly below the consensus estimate of 13.2 million SAAR, possibly because of rising oil prices. I don't think the Japanese supply disruptions have impacted sales much yet.