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US jobless rose 20 thousand to 350 thousand Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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U.S. Initial Jobless Rose by 20,000 to 350,000 Last Week
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The number of U.S. workers filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance rose more than expected to 350,000 last week, a government report showed.
The increase of 20,000 in the week that ended Oct. 23 was from a revised 330,000, the lowest since the week that ended Sept. 4, the Labor Department said in Washington. The less volatile four- week moving average fell to 343,250 from 348,750.
Claims have averaged 354,500 a week since September 2003, when an uninterrupted stretch of monthly job gains began. At the same time, increased energy costs threaten to erode corporate profits, slowing the pace of employment growth since mid-year.
``Layoffs aren't an issue anymore,'' Tim Rogers, chief economist at Briefing.com in Boston, said before the report. ``The issue is hiring. What we're going to see after the election is that stronger economic growth is going to provide a lift to payrolls.''
The report is the last on claims before voters decide next week whether to re-elect President George W. Bush or replace him with Democrat John F. Kerry, a four-term senator from Massachusetts. U.S. employers have added 1.8 million jobs since August 2003, leaving payrolls down by 821,000 since Bush took office in January 2001.
Kerry said in an Oct. 23 radio address that Bush is ``the first president in 72 years to lose jobs.''
Bush, in a campaign speech in Wisconsin Oct. 26, said the four tax cuts under his administration helped create 1.9 million jobs since August 2003.
``We've had some obstacles put in our path,'' Bush said, citing the recession, the stock-market slump, September 11 attacks and corporate accounting scandals.
Expectations
Economists expected claims to rise to 335,000, the median of 38 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey, from a previously reported 329,000. Estimates ranged from 320,000 to 354,000.
The lingering effects of hurricanes in the U.S. southeast in August and September may have contributed to some of the increase in claims last week, a Labor Department spokesman said. The impact is dwindling, the spokesman said.
The week that ended Oct. 16 included the Columbus Day holiday and the government tried to adjust for a shorter workweek. A Labor Department spokesman said it isn't unusual for weeks with holidays to be more volatile, which may explain why claims fell by so much that week.
Continuing Claims
The number of people continuing to collect state jobless benefits rose to 2.823 million in the week that ended Oct. 16 from 2.785 million the week before. The four-week moving average fell to 2.818 million, the lowest since the week that ended May 26, 2001, from 2.828 million.
The insured unemployment rate, which tends to move with the jobless rate, held at 2.2 percent. Two states and territories reported an increase in claims, and 51 had a decrease in the week that ended Oct. 16.
Continuing claims, the insured unemployment rate and the state data are reported with a one-week lag to initial claims.
For the year so far, initial claims have averaged 344,791, compared with 402,000 in 2003.
Beige Book
Hiring ``appeared to increase modestly,'' the Federal Reserve said yesterday in its `beige book' report on regional economic conditions. Almost half of the 12 Fed districts reported increases in demand for temporary workers, and many manufacturers reported increases in permanent hiring.
Some districts reported ``isolated shortages'' of skilled manufacturing workers, truck drivers and ``upper-level'' finance operations.
``We have been working hard to make sure we have the train and engine employees'' to handle increased demand from customers, David Goode, chief executive of Norfolk Southern Corp., said in an interview Oct. 20. ``I'm happy to be in the mode of looking for good people.''
The Commerce Department may report tomorrow that the economy grew at a 4.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. It will grow at a 3.8 percent annual rate in the last three months of the year, according to a separate poll of economists.
Layoffs
Record-high oil prices still may limit economic growth and the pace of hiring, while companies like Kemet Corp. shed workers to pare costs.
Kemet, whose electronic parts are used in mobile phones and hand-held computers, said Oct. 25 it will cut about 10 percent of its workforce, or about 820 employees. The Simpsonville, South Carolina, company had a wider-than-expected loss of $7.47 million, or 9 cents a share, in the quarter that ended Sept. 30.
Culp Inc., based in High Point, North Carolina, said yesterday it will cut 250 jobs and close a plant in Pageland, South Carolina, that makes fabrics for mattresses and furniture upholstery. The jobs represent about 14 percent of those in the company's upholstery fabrics business.
Layoffs involving 50 or more workers totaled 11,725 from January through September, resulting in 1.2 million initial jobless claims, the Labor Department reported last week. That compares with 14,073 mass layoffs and 1.4 million initial claims for the same period last year.
Still, the pace of job growth is down from earlier this year. The U.S. added 96,000 jobs in September, fewer than economists had expected, and down from a high of 353,000 in March.
The Labor Department is to release October's payrolls report on Nov. 5.
Veritas Software Corp., the world's No. 2 maker of data- storage software, plans to hire 100 workers this quarter after adding 325 from July through September, Chief Financial Officer Edwin Gillis said on a conference call. The company employs 7,400.
American Asphalt & Grading Co., a private site preparation company, has increased its workforce by 46 percent this year to 950 workers and plans to add another 50 to 100 employees by Dec. 31, chief executive Paul Robinson said in an interview.
``Business is booming,'' Robinson said.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Courtney Schlisserman in Washington cschlisserma@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kevin Miller in Washington kmiller@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 28, 2004 08:29 EDT
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