Thread: Jobless claims sink; factories strong, but building slows

Jobless claims sink; factories strong, but building slows

Updated 2h 28m ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Economic reports — including initial claims for unemployment benefits, which fell slightly — were mostly positive Thursday.

Besides the good news on jobless claims:

• The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing sector index jumped in March at its strongest pace since July 2004.

• But U.S. builders cut back on new projects in February and drove construction spending to the lowest level in eight years.

The Labor Department said new jobless benefit claims dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 439,000, nearly matching analysts' estimates. It's the fourth drop in five weeks.

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The four-week average of unemployment claims, which smooths volatility, fell nearly 7,000 to 447,250, lowest total since the week of Sept. 13, 2008, just before Lehman Brothers collapsed and the financial crisis intensified.

Most economists expect jobless claims will soon drop below 425,000, a level they expect to signal sustained job creation.

The report comes a day before the Labor Department is scheduled to release the March employment report. Economists expect it will show the economy generated 190,000 jobs last month, the most in three years and only the second gain since the recession began.

Many of those job gains will be a result of temporary government hiring for the 2010 Census. Some will also represent delayed hiring from February, when snowstorms hit the East Coast and closed many businesses. Still, economists expect employers are adding jobs even excluding those factors.

Analysts also expect that the unemployment rate will remain 9.7% for a third month.

Other job reports have been mixed. Payroll provider ADP said Wednesday that private employers cut 23,000 jobs in March, well below economists' forecasts of a 40,000 gain. That figure doesn't include Census hiring and other government jobs.

The Monster employment index, a measure of online job postings, rose one point to 125 in March, its second straight monthly gain.

"We are encouraged to see early signs of what may be a return to consistent job growth," said Jesse Harriott, chief knowledge officer at Monster Worldwide, which owns the Monster.com job board.

The number of people continuing to claim unemployment benefits, meanwhile, dropped slightly to 4.66 million last week.

But that doesn't include millions of people receiving extended benefits for up to 73 extra weeks, paid for by the federal government, on top of the 26 customarily provided by states. More than 6 million people were on the extended benefit rolls the week ended March 13, latest data available.

That is about 270,000 higher than the previous week. The extended benefit figures aren't seasonally adjusted and are volatile from week to week.

All told, nearly 11.4 million people are claiming unemployment benefits, the department said.

Manufacturing strong

The ISM, a trade group of purchasing executives, said its gauge of industrial companies rose to 59.6 in March from 56.5 in February. It is the eighth straight month of expansion.

Economists had expected the index to read 57. A level above 50 indicates growth.

Factories are boosting production for exports and their customers are slowing the drawdown of their inventories, helping power the economic recovery worldwide.

Manufacturing surveys Thursday in China, Britain and the 16 countries using the euro all showed factory activity surging.

Construction spending drops

The Commerce Department reported spending on construction projects around the U.S. fell 1.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $846.23 billion in February. That was the lowest level since November 2002.

Economists were predicting builders would pare spending 1%.

The weakness was widespread. Spending fell for home building, commercial ventures, including hotels and motels, and big government public works projects, such as highways and streets.

The 1.3% drop followed a deeper 1.4% decline in January. It was the fourth month that construction spending fell.

The housing market led the country into a recession and despite some improvement at the end of last year, the sector this year is showing fresh signs of weakness. Commercial real estate has been a drag on overall economic activity. Soured commercial real estate loans are a problem for banks, which remain wary of boosting lending to consumers and businesses.

Thursday's report suggests the real-estate market will continue to be a problem for the economy, which is recovering from the worst recession since the 1930s.

Total spending on construction projects is down 12.8% from a year ago, underscoring the deep hole builders are struggling to climb out of.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2 ... less_N.htm

Yes, this is good news that new unemployment claims fell by 6,000 triggered primarily by the hiring of hundreds of thousands of US Census Workers for 8 months to take the Census. Yes, that means government jobs, and temporary ones at that.

Job report of new "jobs" has thousands of Censes takers which will be gone shortly.

Originally Posted by cjbl2929

Job report of new "jobs" has thousands of Censes takers which will be gone shortly.

Exactly.