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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lucretius who wrote (104438)	5/24/2001 8:51:46 AM
From: jimcav	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Washington, May 24 (Bloomberg) -- The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for state unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, and the number of people receiving benefits surged to the highest level in almost seven years, the government said. Initial jobless claims increased by 15,000 to a level of 407,000 in the week that ended May 19, the Labor Department said. Claims reached a five-year high of 425,000 in the last week of April. The number of people on benefit rolls jumped by 89,000 to a level of 2.772 million in the week that ended May 12, the highest since 2.784 million in the week that ended June 11, 1994. Sluggish consumer and business demand has prompted companies to increase layoffs, suggesting unemployment may creep up as the economy struggles to rebound. ``We are going to see soft employment numbers probably through the third quarter,'' said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo Bank in Minneapolis. ``Businesses are trying to cut costs to protect profit margins and the fastest way to do it is to cut payrolls.'' The insured unemployment rate, which tends to track the overall jobless rate, rose to 2.2 percent in the week ended May 12 -- the highest since it also was 2.2 percent in the first week of January 1997. The rate measures the number of people receiving benefits divided by the number of workers covered by the program. It was 2.1 percent the previous week. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected new claims to rise to 390,000 last week from 380,000 originally reported for the prior week. The prior week's numbers were revised in large part because one state calculated claims data before all information was available, a Labor Department official said. The official did not say which state supplied the data. Average Claims This year, jobless claims have averaged 370,500, up from the weekly average of 302,800 last year and the most since 407,800 in 1992. While the four-week moving average of claims fell to 403,000 last week from 404,250, the last time the weekly average exceeded 400,000 for at least four consecutive weeks was September-October 1992. The acceleration in new jobless claims this year reflects a cooling economy. Economic growth slowed to a 1.5 percent annual pace between October and March, the slowest six-month period since a 1.1 percent rate of increase in the first half of 1995. Federal Reserve policy makers have lowered their target for the overnight bank-lending rate by two-and-a-half percentage points since January to prevent the economy from slipping further. The 4 percent target rate is the lowest in seven years. Twenty states and territories reported an increase in new claims during the week ended May 12, while 32 states and territories reported a decrease and one reported no change. Data on the total number of unemployed workers continuing to receive benefits and state-by-state data are reported with a one- week lag. A survey of 16,000 U.S. companies by Manpower Inc. showed 27 percent plan to add workers between July and September, down from 35 percent a year earlier. The share planning to reduce staff rose to 9 percent from 5 percent a year earlier, according to the private employment agency's survey, released this week. Companies are still shedding workers. Novell Inc., which produces computer software in competition with Microsoft Inc., plans to eliminate 260 jobs, or 5 percent of its workers this month. Glenayre Technologies Inc., a maker of wireless communications equipment, plans to eliminate about 700 jobs over the next two quarters.