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本帖最后由 xiaobailong 于 2009-7-9 09:04 编辑
By Shobhana Chandra
July 9 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest since January, as early automotive plant closures altered the timing of layoffs that typically happen at this time of year.
Initial jobless claims fell by 52,000 to 565,000, a lower level than forecast, in the week ended July 4, from a revised 617,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Meanwhile, the number of people collecting unemployment insurance jumped to a record in the prior week.
Employers are cutting jobs at a slower rate than earlier this year after slashing about 6.5 million positions since the recession began in December 2007, the most of any downturn since World War II. Even so, companies aren’t yet hiring and economists say the jobless rate will keep rising, restraining consumer spending and muting any recovery.
“Job losses lessening is a sign that the worst is over, but it doesn’t mean the labor market will get better in a hurry,” Michael Gregory, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, said before the report. “It’s going to keep consumer spending depressed. People will be reinstating the term ‘jobless recovery.’”
Jobless claims were estimated to fall to 603,000 from 614,000 initially reported for the prior week, according to the median projection of 40 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 570,000 to 625,000.
Volatile Period
Weekly claims tend to be volatile at this time of the year, when automakers idle workers while they re-equip factories to build new models. Claims this month were also distorted due to early shutdowns following bankruptcies at General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, according to Abiel Reinhart, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York.
A number of plants at GM and Chrysler closed in May and June, ahead of the normal summer shutdowns, shifting into those two months the applications that would typically be filed in early July, Reinhart said. Any move in claims due to so-called seasonal factors “is temporary, and will reverse in later weeks,” he said.
A Labor Department spokesman today said because of the so- called seasonal adjustment factors the government expected a big jump in claims last week and the current week, followed by big declines in the following two weeks.
The four-week moving average of initial claims, a less volatile measure, fell to 606,000 last week from 616,000.
Continuing Claims
Continuing claims soared by 159,000, the most since early May, in the week ended June 27 to 6.88 million.
The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the jobless rate, rose to 5.1 percent in the week ended June 27, from 5 percent the prior week.
Twenty-one states and territories reported an increase in new claims for the week ended June 27, while 32 reported a decrease. These data are reported with a one-week lag.
Initial jobless claims reflect weekly firings and tend to rise as job growth -- measured by the monthly non-farm payrolls report -- slows.
Payrolls in June fell more than economists forecast and the unemployment rate reached 9.5 percent, the highest since 1983, Labor said last week.
Cost-cutting continues in other industries too. Tellabs Inc., the maker of networking equipment, this week said it is scrapping about 150 jobs.
Dow Chemical Co., the largest U.S. chemical maker, said July 1 it will permanently close three Louisiana factories and take a second-quarter charge of about $700 million that includes the elimination of 2,500 jobs, following the acquisition of Rohm & Haas Co.
“We continue to take quick and aggressive action” to control costs, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Liveris said in a statement last week.
Recent reports from the Institute for Supply Management indicated that manufacturing and service industries in the U.S. shrank at a slower pace in June, in each case helped by a gain in ISM’s gauges of employment. |
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狗仔卡
发表于 2009-7-9 07:36 AM
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发表于 2009-7-9 09:07 AM
