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New jobless claims drop, benefit rolls reach 6.7M
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 21 - 05 - 2009


The number of newly laid-off Americans
requesting unemployment insurance dropped slightly last
week after spiking due to auto layoffs, while continuing
jobless claims moved closer to 7 million, according to AP.
Jobs are likely to remain scarce through next year and
maybe beyond that even though the overall economy seems to
be picking up. Fresh evidence of improvement came Thursday
from a private research group. It said its index of leading
indicators rose in April for the first time in seven
months.
The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for
jobless benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 631,000,
down from a revised figure of 643,000 the previous week.
That nearly matched analysts' expectations of 630,000 new
claims.
Many economists said that while layoffs probably are still
declining, they may not be doing so as fast as had been
hoped. New jobless claims, which had dropped to a 14-week
low of 605,000 earlier this month, are seen as a measure of
the pace of layoffs.
Factory shutdowns by Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp.
likely will continue to inflate the claims figures until
this summer, economists said. The shutdowns also could
affect auto suppliers, which employ roughly 3 million
workers.
«We expect that the auto shutdowns will be lifting claims
for the next couple of months,» said Dean Maki, an
economist at Barclays Capital.
Claims jumped two weeks ago as Chrysler shut its factories
after filing for bankruptcy protection April 30, putting up
to 27,000 hourly employees out of work. In addition, GM is
temporarily closing 13 factories on a rolling basis over
the next two months, a move economists estimate could
affect 25,000 workers.
Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank,
thinks the closings could temporarily push claims to as
high as 700,000, though few other economists are as
bearish.
Tim Stannard, a United Auto Workers vice president at a GM
plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, said the company will
close the factory for five weeks beginning June 1. The
plant could be one of the 16 GM permanently closes.
«Right now, we've been told we're coming back to work,»
he said. «Everyone's on pins and needles.»
GM and Chrysler also recently announced they will
terminate their contracts with around 2,000 dealerships in
the U.S., which likely will result in shutdowns for many.
The National Automobile Dealers Association, a trade group,
said the auto makers' decisions could result in 100,000 job
losses.
The number of workers continuing to claim unemployment
insurance rose to nearly 6.7 million from about 6.6
million, the department said. That's the highest total on
records dating to 1967 and the 16th straight record. The
continuing claims data lags initial claims by one week.


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