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Strategies & Market Trends : Galapagos Islands -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (25291)	2/5/2003 7:23:07 PM
From: Challo Jeregy	Respond to of 57110

Unlike in manufacturing where layoffs persist, the services index showed hiring for the first time since February 2001, with that index rising to 50.3 from 46.9. The hiring came in wholesale trade and communications, the report said. While economists warned the ISM services employment index has a poor correlation with government labor market data, it still provided some hope the economy's improvement may finally be generating new jobs. "This should come as a big relief to the (Federal Reserve) because weak service sector hiring accounts for much of the recent weakness in payrolls," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial Markets in New York. The positive jobs news came before January payrolls data to be released on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters have forecast the economy added 70,00 jobs in the month after having shed about 190,000 in November and December. The jobless rate is seen holding steady at an eight-year high of 6 percent. The ongoing growth in services and improvement factories raised hopes for better growth in the first quarter, after the economy expanded by just 0.7 percent in the last three months of 2002. Most economists expect growth of 2 to 3 percent this quarter. biz.yahoo.com