<U.S.Economy> Steady as she goes,somebody better cover their....>
Somebody better cover their ass-ets today.<g>
Let's see what will they come up with next as an excuse to take'er out,hummmmmmmmmmm---->
U.S. Feb. Unemployment Unexpectedly Rises to 4.4%, Easing Rate Concern
U.S. Economy Added 275,000 Jobs in Feb.; Jobless Rate 4.4%
Washington, March 5 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly crept higher in February to 4.4 percent from 4.3 percent in January even as companies added jobs at a robust clip.
Last month's increase of 275,000 jobs was above analysts' forecasts of a gain of 244,000, Labor Department figures showed.
During January, employment gains totaled a revised 217,000, lower than the government's initial estimate of a gain of 245,000.
Analysts expected a jobless rate of 4.3 percent for last month.
Workers' average hourly earnings, a gauge of business costs, rose 0.1 percent -- or 1 cent -- to $13.04 in February, following an increase of 0.4 percent during January, previously reported as an gain of 0.5 percent.
A rise in the jobless rate suggests ''perhaps you're seeing a little slowdown,'' said Kevin Flanagan, an economist at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in New York, before the report. That will probably keep Federal Reserve policy-makers from raising interest rates, Flanagan said. Since November, the economy has added more than a million jobs.
The rise in February payrolls was telegraphed by other reports showing a steady drop in claims for state unemployment benefits, a jump in help-wanted advertising and rising consumer confidence.
The four-week moving average of new jobless benefit claims has fallen for six straight weeks, and reached a 10-year low of 290,750 last week, the Labor Department reported yesterday.
Help-Wanted Ads Rise
Also last week, the New York-based Conference Board said its index of help-wanted ads in 51 newspapers across the country climbed to 93 in January from December's 88. The index was at 90 a year ago. Help-wanted advertising rose in seven of the nation's nine major regions surveyed during the past three months.
And the Conference Board's consumer confidence survey last week showed its component gauging if jobs are ''hard to get'' dropped in February to a record low and its index on whether jobs are ''plentiful'' rose to a record high.
Those signposts of vigorous job growth also match evidence that manufacturing -- the only weak spot in the U.S. economy over the past year -- may be rebounding, while housing and retail sales are booming.
Orders placed with U.S. manufacturers rose 1.7 percent during January, the seventh gain in the last eight months, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.
U.S. stores open at least a year reported their sales rose 7.6 percent during February, according to the Bank of Tokyo/Mitsubishi index, which tracks about 85 retailers. That was above an expected 5.5 percent gain and came on top of an 8.3 percent gain in January.
And while sales of new single-family homes declined 5 percent in January to an annual rate of 918,000 units after falling to a 966,000-unit pace in December, the monthly total was the third best of all time. New houses sold at a record annual rate of 1 million in November.
Report Details
Service-producing employment rose by 263,000 in February, led by the biggest gain in retail hiring since 1988.
Manufacturing employment decreased by 50,000 last month, bringing the total job cuts in factory employment to 337,000 since last March.
Construction employment rose by 72,000.
The Labor Department also said:
-- Average weekly hours worked rose to 34.7 in February from 34.5
during January.
-- Manufacturing overtime decreased to 4.5 hours during
February from 4.6 hours during January.
-- The index of hours worked, a gauge of economic growth
that combines changes in the work week and changes in payroll growth, rose to 147.3 in February from 146.4 during January.
-- Average weekly earnings increased to $452.49 during February $449.54 during January.
-- The percentage of unemployed workers who voluntarily quit their jobs in February rose to 12.3 percent from 11.8 percent during January.
-- The percentage of the U.S. population holding jobs decreased to 67.3 percent in February from 67.4 percent during January.
Employment Outlook
In its latest economic forecast, the Federal Reserve predicted the U.S. unemployment rate will stay close to its current level throughout over next two years, ranging between 4.25 percent and 4.5 percent. Last year, the unemployment rate averaged 4.5 percent, the lowest since 1969, during the Vietnam War.
What's more, a recent survey suggested U.S. companies will step up their hiring during the second quarter of 1999.
According to Manpower Inc.'s quarterly survey of 16,000 businesses, 29 percent expect to take on more employees during the second quarter of the year, 6 percent said they'd cut their workforces, and 61 percent said their employment levels would remain the same.
That's up from hiring expectations for the current quarter, which end March 31, according to the Manpower survey.
''We see no deterioration of hiring strength,'' said Mitchell Fromstein, chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based personnel company.
Though hiring plans were slowest at U.S. manufacturers, the ''weakness is centered more on new hires than on downsizing activity,'' Fromstein said.
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