U.S. Jobless Claims Exceed 600,000 for a Fifth Week

[marmar]

U.S. Jobless Claims Exceed 600,000 for a Fifth Week (Update2)
By Courtney Schlisserman and Shobhana Chandra


March 5 (Bloomberg) -- More than 600,000 Americans filed initial claims for jobless benefits last week as companies strived to cut the costs of workforces that are producing less as the recession deepens.

The Labor Department today reported 639,000 first-time unemployment applications, the fifth straight week above 600,000. The agency also said worker productivity, a measure of employee output per hour, fell at a 0.4 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2008, with labor costs climbing 5.7 percent.

Today’s figures underscore the economy’s downward spiral, with companies from J.Crew Group Inc. to billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. eliminating jobs, and rising unemployment aggravating the slump in consumer spending. Stock-index futures slid and Treasuries climbed.

“The deterioration of the labor market certainly continues; this is a pretty bleak picture,” Harm Bandholz, a U.S. economist at UniCredit Global Research in New York, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index dropped 2.1 percent to 697.84 at 9:35 a.m. in New York. Benchmark 10-year note yields fell to 2.88 percent from 2.98 percent late yesterday. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aanaFt_TxFEM&refer=home

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. 5 weeks at 600,000 per week - thats THREE MILLION Folks!

.
.
.

And people are still asking if there is a DEPRESSION happening??

3 million people lost their jobs in just over a month

wow

and remember too, these are just the ones that filed for Unemployment

others lose jobs and don't file for one reason or another

but still

wow

[lib2DaBone]

2. Only a half million people lost their jobs.... that is no so bad? Let's party...