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Business Title: U.S. Jobless Claims Declined More Than Forecast Last Week July 14 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week to the lowest level since April, a sign weakness in the labor market may be starting to abate. Applications for jobless benefits decreased 22,000 in the week ended July 9 to 405,000, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 415,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. The data included fewer layoffs in the auto industry than typical this time of the year, according to an agency spokesman. A sustained reduction in firings is a first step toward a pickup in hiring after employers in June added the fewest workers in nine months and the jobless rate rose. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday that "disappointing" job growth in the last two months was due to temporary effects, such as high fuel costs and delayed parts shipments from Japan. "We need them get down around 350,000 before we can see the labor market really taking off," David Semmens, a U.S. economist at Standard Chartered Bank in New York, said before the report. Sales at U.S. retailers stagnated in June as rising unemployment held consumers back, another report showed. The 0.1 percent increase reported by the Commerce Department in Washington today compared with the median forecast of a 0.1 percent drop in the Bloomberg News survey of 80 economists. Excluding auto sales, purchases were little changed, the weakest performance since July 2010. Stock-Index Futures Stock-index futures extended gains after the reports. The contract on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index expiring in September rose 0.4 percent to 1,317.1 at 8:41 a.m. in New York. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note climbed to 2.93 percent from 2.88 percent late yesterday. Claims dropped to the lowest level since the week ended April 16. Estimates for first-time claims ranged from 375,000 to 440,000 in the Bloomberg survey of 49 economists. The Labor Department initially reported the prior week's applications at 418,000. "Seasonal factors expected a fairly large rise in claims. There were some state-reported auto layoffs this week, but probably not as many as usual," a Labor Department official said as the figures were released. "If you go back traditionally in the first two weeks of July you have a large amount of layoffs primarily from manufacturing." Auto Factories Economists at UBS Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, said they projected claims to drop this week because auto-plant shutdowns occurred earlier this year than usual. "The drop is more technical in nature," Kevin Cummins, an economist at UBS Securities, said before the report. Regarding some auto assembly plants, "if those temporary layoffs don't occur in early July when the seasonal factors expect that they would, this may bias the number down a bit." The report also included a 11,500 unadjusted increase in claims related to the government shutdown in Minnesota. Minnesota's government shut down at 12:01 a.m. July 1, after Democratic Governor Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders failed to resolve a budget stalemate at the start of the new fiscal year. The impasse led to the layoffs of about 23,000 state workers, according to John Pollard, a spokesman for Minnesota's Management and Budget office. Four-Week Average The four-week moving average, a less-volatile measure, fell to 423,250 from 427,000. The number of people continuing to collect jobless benefits rose by 15,000 in the week ended July 2 to 3.73 million. The continuing claims figure does not include the number of workers 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 16,000 to 3.83 million in the week ended June 25.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Want to bet?
Proxy IP's are amusing.....lmao
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