WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2008
Streak Of Unemployment Claims Decline Ends
Number Of Workers Seeking Benefits Jumps, However, Productivity Rose In Second Quarter
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(AP / file)
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Interactive Eye On The Economy In-depth features on U.S. markets, taxes, employment and the Federal Reserve.
The Labor Department reported that new applications for unemployment insurance rose to a seasonally adjusted 444,000, up 15,000 from the previous week. Economists had expected claims to drop to 420,000.
The increase indicates that the slowing economy is taking its toll on the job market. Many economists consider claims above 400,000 to be a sign of a weak economy. Initial claims stood at 320,000 in the same week last year.
The four-week moving average fell slightly to 438,000, down 3,250 from the previous week.
The number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits also rose slightly to 3.44 million for the week ending Aug. 23, up 6,000 from the previous week. That number doesn't include people who have exhausted their regular benefits and have requested extended assistance under an emergency program.
Separately, the Labor Department reported that productivity, the amount of output for every hour of work, rose at a 4.3 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, a full percentage point higher than economists expected.
Meanwhile, labor costs fell 0.5 percent, the department said. The combination of higher productivity with lower costs should help contain inflation and give the Federal Reserve some breathing room on credit policy.
Caught between slowing growth and rising prices, the Fed is expected to leave a key interest rate alone at 2 percent when it meets next on Sept. 16.
Retail sales were mixed, with many stores reporting sluggish back-to-school sales, though Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sales came in better than analysts expected.
While Thursday's jobless claims figure is below the six-year high of 457,000 reached in late July, economists attributed some of that increase to an outreach program by the Labor Department to notify individuals about the availability of extended benefits. Congress approved the extra benefits in June.
But several economists have said the distortions from that program have likely faded. A Labor Department analyst also said the figures don't include any impact from Hurricane Gustav.
The unexpected jump could foreshadow more rough news for the job market on Friday, when the Labor Department reports monthly unemployment numbers. Economists expect the department to say that employers eliminated 75,000 jobs in August, which would be the eighth straight month of job cuts.
The department is also expected to report that the unemployment rate rose to 5.8 percent from 5.7 percent in July.
Increased unemployment can crimp consumer spending as laid off workers and those who fear for their jobs cut back on their purchases. That, in turn, can further weaken the economy.
While the U.S. gross domestic product grew at a healthy 3.3 percent clip in the April to June quarter, many analysts expect the economy to slow and possibly contract later this year, due to rising unemployment and slowing economies overseas.
Separately, this summer saw the highest level of job cuts in six years, according to a report released Wednesday by job placement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Employers eliminated 377,325 jobs in the May to August period, the firm said, up from 249,197 in the summer of 2007.
GMAC Financial Services said Wednesday it will lay off 5,000 workers as part of a plan to scale back its mortgage lending. GMAC is majority owned by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP while General Motors Corp. holds a large stake.
Meanwhile, Freightliner LLC, a heavy truck subsidiary of German automaker Daimler AG, said last week it would cut 100 jobs.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- "First of all, there are no millionaires being created every day, it''''s all "sub-prime wealth" where it looks like a person is wealthy on paper (i.e. fiat-currency or the "dollar").
Just look at celebrities having to ground personal jets, and yachts...losing their mansions because of the currency crisis...."
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Posted by whitemale08 at 02:55 AM : Sep 05, 2008
+ report abuse
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JUST proves my point.. a lot of uneducated people who comes out of a liberalized educational system who can barely read or write ends up doing menial jobs i.e. bellboys and busboys and THINKS that they can make a career out of it and make tons of money. to become a millionaire..i mean the kind that would stick per se..you have to be educated..
your ''celebrity'' excuse works against you..too many MC Hammers, Rap Stars, basketball players and such, models and hollywood jokes becomes millionaires overnight BUT ARE TOO STUPID to maintain that money..
why???BECAUSE MAJORITY OF THEM ARE STUPID..and why are they stupid?? BECAUSE THEY NEVER BEEN EDUCATED PROPERLY... - Reply to this comment
- Posted by whitemale08 at 02:55 AM : Sep 05, 2008
+ report abuse
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listen........to begin,
a well off EDUCATED MAN does not openly expose his financial status..which drops you in an area of a "bullsh*tter"
second, for a person to proceed in life as a independent person who is free of debt from credit cards, unable to be victimized with mortgage scams and HAS THE ABILITY TO think for themselves in terms of civil or financial issues..THE SAID PERSON NEEDS TO BE EDUCATED AND POSSESS A CERTAIN CHARACTER..
this education and character IS NOT..I REPEAT..NOT BEING PROVIDED BY OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM..WHICH may i add I A VERY LIBERALIZED SYSTEM..
meaning the core of the person is THEE most improtant tool he would to survive in a very vicious world.. - Reply to this comment
- we have this spike in unemployment and a spike on people entering this country illegaly to work.
Posted by libsluv2spit at 06:50 PM : Sep 04, 2008
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Not of late, in fact allot are now going home, a sure sign of a sagging economy. - Reply to this comment
- Great, productivity rises as jobs are lost. Wages are down. Productivity = more $ for the greedy CEOs and less for the workers that matter.
- Reply to this comment
- by the way..the way you are ranting you sound like your one broke arse mofo..goes to show you that you dont get rich by having this mentality that its ''''everybody''''s fault'''' that your not even breaking even at every paycheck.
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Posted by libsluv2spit at 12:23 AM : Sep 05, 2008--
First of all, there are no millionaires being created every day, it''s all "sub-prime wealth" where it looks like a person is wealthy on paper (i.e. fiat-currency or the "dollar").
Just look at celebrities having to ground personal jets, and yachts...losing their mansions because of the currency crisis. And come Sept 30th when the Federal Reserve prints its first round of bail-outs with no lending from China, just printing, you my friend will be wiped out too.
Second of all, I doubt if you have more wealth then me, because I''m relatively debt free, and own gold and silver not the paper Federal Reserve Notes that you keep in meager little bank account.
Lastly, if you want to know who the Federal Reserve is, I suggest you google and watch "Money Changers", afterwhich you will discard your stupid public and college education and start think like I do.
P.S. wants you''ve completed that education, then go to laroughepac.com and learn what''s going to happen Sept 30th 2008 and what might happen even earlier that''s more scary. Good luck moron, and never assume anything about the person you wish to critisize. - Reply to this comment
- Since when have unemployment figures been so heavily watched on a ''week by week'' basis instead of a monthly basis?!
Could it be because it then allows someone to claim positive news events and misstate reality? Whereas, after adding the fourth week in the count, the rate might have increased for the month AS A WHOLE?!
This is the kind of ''cherry-picking'' RepubliCON method of analysis that resulted in the Iraq war! Obviously, they didn''t learn anything from that HUGE mistake, did they?! - Reply to this comment
- I suggest to you, that before you open you fat mouth, that you forget whatever you think you know about the economy and focus on what and who makes up the Federal Reserve System is and the dangers of a fiat-currency that monetizes debt and debt assets like "mortgage-back-securities".
Until then, just shut the hell up!!!
Posted by whitemale08 at 08:31 PM : Sep 04, 2008
+ report abuse
******
by the way..the way you are ranting you sound like your one broke arse mofo..goes to show you that you dont get rich by having this mentality that its ''everybody''s fault'' that your not even breaking even at every paycheck. - Reply to this comment
- The education system that you need to complain about is Keynesian economics, where the belief is: "war is free" and "tax cuts for the rich" trickle-down to avereage Americans.
It also has to do with your moronic faith in fiat-currency, the belief that you can back the "dollar" with debt indefinitely and the stupid stupid belief that "defecits don''''t matter".
I suggest to you, that before you open you fat mouth, that you forget whatever you think you know about the economy and focus on what and who makes up the Federal Reserve System is and the dangers of a fiat-currency that monetizes debt and debt assets like "mortgage-back-securities".
Until then, just shut the hell up!!!
Posted by whitemale08 at 08:31 PM : Sep 04, 2008
+ report abuse
**********
actually if we have competent teachers who actually spends time teaching than spreading this liberal ideology..they we would have generations of students who are motivated enough, UNPOISONED WITH ''THE MAN IS THE REASON WHY I AM POOR'', smart enough to NOT WORRY ABOUT THE '' trickle down'' economics..
what is happening is we have generations of morons who are trained to be stupid and POISED WITH ingenius reasons to blame everything else for thier failures..as we speak people are becoming millionaires..those WHO DESIRE TO BE ONE AND ACTUALLY WORK FOR IT..
by they way..oh yeah tell me ..''who runs the federal reserve''? - Reply to this comment
- or can be a clear evidence that a liberalized educational system DOES NOT WORK..pumping out generations after generations of morons who idolizes morons on tv and music industry..like they say that is the only way the DNC can maintain a loyal following..KEEP THEM STUPID
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Posted by libsluv2spit at 04:52 PM : Sep 04, 2008--
The education system that you need to complain about is Keynesian economics, where the belief is: "war is free" and "tax cuts for the rich" trickle-down to avereage Americans.
It also has to do with your moronic faith in fiat-currency, the belief that you can back the "dollar" with debt indefinitely and the stupid stupid belief that "defecits don''t matter".
I suggest to you, that before you open you fat mouth, that you forget whatever you think you know about the economy and focus on what and who makes up the Federal Reserve System is and the dangers of a fiat-currency that monetizes debt and debt assets like "mortgage-back-securities".
Until then, just shut the hell up!!! - Reply to this comment
- what else is new ?
- Reply to this comment
- i cannot seem to understand this..we have this spike in unemployment and a spike on people entering this country illegaly to work.
- Reply to this comment
- I see a lot of available jobs..pick your poison...www.CareerSitesCompany.com
- Reply to this comment
- More evidence of this failed presidency.
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Posted by Smurfcrusher at 11:57 AM : Sep 04, 2008
+ report abuse
******
or can be a clear evidence that a liberalized educational system DOES NOT WORK..pumping out generations after generations of morons who idolizes morons on tv and music industry..like they say that is the only way the DNC can maintain a loyal following..KEEP THEM STUPID - Reply to this comment
- Economists had expected claims to drop to 420,000.
Ha!!
I don''t know what economists make,(if they make more than $7.00 per hour, then that''s too much) but I could have, and did forecast that the employment figures does not reflect the true story of unemployment.
20 months from now, or maybe sooner, they will say there is more people off the unemployment rolls than previously thought, just 6 months ago. Or so how the headlines will read. Mark my words.
I just love how they play with words and the statistics. - Reply to this comment
- Sure wish we had them jobs we sent to china!!! Well at least stuff is cheaper now. The downside is that those unemployed people can''t buy any of it.
- Reply to this comment
- We haven''t even scratched the surface yet!
A "credit derivatives" tsunami is about to unfold once they start the bail out of Fannie and Freddie on Sept 30th.
Bush/McCain/Palin are all one in the same, just failed politicians who know nothing about inflation, no nothing about the economy and know nothing about what is happening and what is going to happen to the already devastated "middle-class" in this country.
they are clearly "out of touch" with the American people. - Reply to this comment
- More evidence of this failed presidency.
- Reply to this comment
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
