U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Rose to 654,000 Last Week

[Joanne98]

By Courtney Schlisserman

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week, holding above 600,000 for a sixth straight time, as companies kept cutting payrolls to reduce costs amid a worsening recession.

Initial jobless applications increased by 9,000 to 654,000 in the week that ended March 7, more than anticipated, from a revised 645,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The number of people staying on benefit rolls rose in the previous week by 193,000 to a record 5.317 million.

Employers ranging from United Technologies Corp. to AMR Corp., which owns American Airlines, have announced more than 823,000 job cuts since the November election of Barack Obama, bringing total losses since 2007 to about 4.4 million. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this week she hasn’t ruled out a second economic stimulus if the current package, meant to create or save up to 4 million jobs, doesn’t work quickly enough.

“Companies are still shedding payrolls at a rapid clip,” Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse Holdings USA Inc. in New York, said before the report.

Another government report showed sales at U.S. retailers in February fell less than forecast and January’s gain was almost double the previous estimate, indicating the biggest part of the economy may be starting to stabilize.

Sales Ex-Autos Climb

The 0.1 percent decrease reflected a slump in demand for cars and followed a revised 1.8 percent jump in January, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Purchases excluding automobiles unexpectedly climbed 0.7 percent.

Stock-index futures pared earlier losses after the reports. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index were down 0.2 percent at of 8:39 a.m. in New York. Treasuries were little changed.

Economists projected claims would rise to 644,000 from an originally reported 639,000 a week earlier, according to the median of 45 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Projections ranged from 610,000 to 660,000. Continuing jobless claims were forecast to increase to 5.14 million.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=axNqUHb5DivE&refer=home

[CoffeeCat]

1. It's not enough that we get bad news...

We get to see that they're trying to pin this on Obama. Does it get more obvious than this?

"Employers ranging from United Technologies Corp. to AMR Corp., which owns American Airlines, have announced more than 823,000 job cuts since the November election of Barack Obama, bringing total losses since 2007 to about 4.4 million."