The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released the monthly Economic and Revenue Update today. General fund-state revenue collections for the September 11 to October 10 period beat the forecast by $36.6 million. However, Forecast Council staff believe that much of this “positive variance” is due to timing of payments and will offset by below-forecast collections in the current collections month.

Here is the summary:

• September U.S. employment grew by 114,000 jobs; July and August employment data were revised up by a total of 86,000 jobs.
• Economic data continue to provide mixed signals, but consumer confidence improves.
• Washington employment and income continue to grow at a moderate rate.
• Housing construction is improving, but off a very low base.
• Major General Fund-State revenue collections for the September 11 – October 10, 2012 collection period were $36.6 million (3.4%) higher than the September forecast. Revenue Act collections were $35.7 million (3.8%) higher than forecasted and other revenue was $1.0 million (0.8%) higher.
• It is likely that this month’s large Revenue Act variance was mainly due to the timing of payments and it will be at least partially reversed next month.

The Update is available here.