Jobless Claims Held Steady Last Week
Wed Dec 24, 8:55 AM ET Add Business - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Nancy Waitz
URL:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1203&e=10&u=/nm/20031224/bs_nm/economy_jobless_dc&sid=95609869
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Initial claims for U.S. jobless benefits held steady last week, the government said on Wednesday in report suggesting an overall decline in claims over the past three months reflects fewer layoffs rather than a marked pickup in hiring.
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First-time applications for state unemployment insurance, an early reading on the resilience of the labor market, fell a mere 1,000 to 353,000 in the week ended Dec. 20 from a revised 354,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department (news - web sites) said.
The figure was in line with Wall Street forecasts for 353,000 new claims.
"If claims are at an underlying level of close to 350,000, that's probably consistent with payroll growth of over 100,000 per month," said Jade Zelnik, chief economist for RBS Greenwich Capital Markets.
"It suggests job creation has resumed and that will tend to help support consumer spending. It also means that the expansion of the recovery has probably entered a self-sustaining phase at this point," Zelnik said.
Claims have been below the 400,000 level economists see as a divide between improving and deteriorating labor markets for 12 consecutive weeks -- the longest stretch since a run that ended in April 2001.
A more reliable barometer of employment market trends, the closely watched four-week moving average of initial claims, fell for the second straight week to 361,750 from 362,000 in the previous week.
The department said the number of unemployed workers who continued to draw benefits fell 38,000 to 3.27 million in the week ended Dec. 13, the latest week for which that figure is available. That is the lowest level since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The number of long-term unemployed who have exhausted their state benefits and qualify for emergency federal aid fell by 558 claims. The department said 807,205 people were claiming emergency benefits in the week ended Dec. 6, the latest period for which that data are available.
The extended benefits program which started in March 2002, when the unemployment rate stood at 5.7 percent, allowed for an additional 13 weeks of payments after normal benefits expire. That program has been extended twice and the latest extension expired on Dec. 21.
The job market, which is likely to be a key issue in the 2004 presidential election, has lagged behind the overall economic recovery since employers may delay adding new workers until evidence of demand is strong.
Since President Bush (news - web sites) took office in January 2001, 2.3 million jobs outside the farm sector have been lost. |
