Mixed Signals: Jobless Claims Dip; Layoff Plans Rise
by MARK MEMMOTT
March 07, 2013 8:42 AM
As we await Friday's much-anticipated report about the February unemployment rate and how many jobs were added to employers' payrolls last month, there are these new bits of economic data to chew over:
— The Employment and Training Administration says there were 340,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week. That's down from 7,000 the previous week. Claims continue at a pace that's the lowest since first-quarter 2008.
— Employers announced plans for 55,356 layoffs in February, according to outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That's up 37 percent from January and 7 percent from February 2012. But the 95,786 layoffs announced so far in 2013 are a 9 percent decline from the same two months a year earlier.
— American workers' productivity decreased at a 1.9 percent annual rate in fourth-quarter 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
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http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/07/173700799/mixed-signals-jobless-claims-dip-layoff-plans-rise