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United States News Title: U.S. Jobless Claims Fell Last Week to Lowest Level Since July The number of Americans filing initial jobless claims last week fell to the lowest level in four months, reinforcing evidence the U.S. labor market is healing. Applications for jobless benefits declined by 24,000 to 435,000 in the week ended Nov. 6, lower than the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The total number of people collecting unemployment insurance fell to the lowest level since November 2008, and those receiving extended payments also declined. Fewer firings are a first step to improvement in the labor market, followed by faster job and income growth that will help fuel gains in consumer spending. Bigger increases in payrolls are also required to bring down an unemployment rate that’s close to 10 percent. “This is further confirmation that the job market is slowly improving,” said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Inc. in Detroit. “We are now headed in the right direction and may make some progress in breaking free of the range we’ve been stuck in since the beginning of the year.” Stock-index futures erased earlier losses and Treasury securities dropped after the report. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.1 percent to 1,212.3 at 8:46 a.m. in New York. The yield on the 10-year note, which moves inversely to price, rose to 2.71 percent from 2.66 percent late yesterday. Trade Gap The Commerce Department said today that the trade deficit narrowed to $44 billion in September from $46.5 billion a month earlier. Import prices in October rose 0.9 percent, Labor Department figures showed. Jobless benefits applications, which dropped to the lowest level since the week ended July 10, were projected to fall to 450,000, according to the median forecast of 46 economists in the Bloomberg survey. Estimates ranged from 435,000 to 469,000. There were no special factors behind the drop in claims, a Labor Department said as the figures were released. The government’s seasonal factors anticipated a bigger increase in unadjusted claims than actually occurred, the official said. The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, dropped to 446,500 last week, the lowest since Sept. 13, 2008, from 456,500, the report showed. Continuing Claims The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits dropped by 86,000 in the week ended Oct. 30 to 4.3 million, in line with the median projection. The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs. Those who’ve used up their traditional benefits and are now collecting emergency and extended payments decreased by about 286,000 to 4.73 million in the week ended Oct. 23. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the jobless rate, dropped to 3.4 percent in the week ended Oct. 30, from 3.5 percent in the prior week. Twenty-eight states and territories reported an increase in claims, while 25 reported a decrease. These data are reported with a one-week lag. Initial jobless claims reflect weekly firings and tend to fall as job growth -- measured by the monthly employment report -- accelerates. That relationship has broken down in recent months as some companies continue to cut staff, while others expand, pointing to an uneven recovery. Federal Reserve A slower pace of economic growth and elevated unemployment were reasons that prompted Federal Reserve policy makers last week to announce a second round of large-scale asset purchases. Job openings fell in September for a second month, a Labor Department report showed yesterday. It also indicated that compared with the 14.8 million Americans who were unemployed in September, there are 5 people vying for every opening, up from about 1.8 when the recession began in December 2007. Hiring may get a boost as retailers take on extra workers for the holiday shopping season that starts this month. Kohl’s Corp., a department store chain, plans to hire about 40,000 people for the holiday period, 21 percent more than last year. Toys “R” Us Inc. said it may add about 45,000 employees for the season, including 10,000 at its temporary stores. Some companies are still paring workers. Parker Hannifin Corp., a maker of valves and pumps used in factory equipment, this week said it cut about 170 jobs in its industrial segment and about 20 in the aerospace unit, and closed some plants in its fiscal first quarter ended Sept. 30. To contact the reporter on this story: Shobhana Chandra in Washington at schandra1@bloomberg.net
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#1. To: go65 (#0)
(laughing) Yep, the annual holiday temp hiring season is upon us. Whats really amusing is citing it against July's pathetic numbers as a 'positive'.
the number of people collecting unemployment fell to the lowest level since November of 2008. You don't consider this a good thing?
You don't consider this a good thing? No, not when we have a record number of unemployed, and a record number of under employed.
#4. To: Badeye (#3)
So falling numbers of people on unemployment isn't a good thing. OK,
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