U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Fell to 353,000 Last Week (Update1) Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Americans filing first- time applications for state unemployment benefits fell to 353,000 last week, matching an almost three-year low and suggesting the economy will add jobs for a fifth month in December.
Initial jobless claims fell by a larger-than-expected 22,000 in the week that ended Saturday, the first decrease in three weeks, from a revised 375,000 a week earlier, the Labor Department said in Washington. Claims also totaled 353,000 in the last week of October, the lowest since January 2001.
Best Buy Co. and Agilent Technologies Inc. are among companies hiring as the economy improves. Rising employment and wage growth may help boost spending and underpin the expansion.
``There is every reason to expect payroll growth to accelerate over the next few months,'' said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York.
Economists had expected claims would fall to 365,000, based on the median of 40 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey, from the 378,000 initially reported for the week earlier. Forecasts ranged from 350,000 to 380,000. The report coincides with the week the government surveys businesses to determine whether they added or shed jobs this month.
Claims around 370,000 are historically consistent with a gain of 100,000 to 150,000 payroll jobs, according to research by economists at Lehman Brothers Inc. in New York. The December employment report is to be released on Jan. 9.
The four-week moving average of claims, a less-volatile indicator, fell to 361,750 from 364,000.
Continuing Claims
The number of people continuing to collect state jobless benefits rose to 3.34 million in the week that ended Dec. 6 from 3.31 million a week earlier. The four-week average of continuing claims dropped to 3.33 million, the lowest since September 2001.
The insured employment rate, which tends to track the U.S. jobless rate, held at 2.6 percent in the week ended Dec. 6. The Labor Department also said 40 states and territories reported an increase in new claims, while 13 reported a decrease. These data are reported with a one-week lag.
Two-thirds of U.S. chief financial officers said their companies plan to boost hiring in 2004, according to the results of a survey issued yesterday of 236 executives and conducted by Financial Executives International and Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.
The number of employees is expected to increase 2 percent next year, compared with their projections six months ago that there would be no increase, the survey showed. About 14 percent said their payrolls would shrink.
`Significant Growth'
``We are expecting significant growth also as we go into the upcoming year,'' said Brad Anderson, chief executive of Best Buy, the largest U.S. electronics chain, in a televised interview with Bloomberg News yesterday. The Richfield, Minnesota-based retailer is planning on opening 80 stores next year as earnings more than doubled last quarter. The openings will mean ``more hiring and a continued kind of robust investment in inventories,'' said Anderson.
Production at the nation's factories, utilities and mines rose 0.9 percent last month, the biggest increase since October 1999, the Federal Reserve reported yesterday.
``Output is expanding briskly, and the labor market appears to be improving modestly,'' said Fed policy makers last week in announcing they were holding the target for their benchmark interest rate at a 45-year low of 1 percent. With inflation low and resources, such as factories and workers, not being fully utilized, the central bankers said they could keep the target rate low ``for a considerable period.''
Members of the Fed's rate-setting Open Market Committee said signs of economic growth, while encouraging, still may not generate substantial numbers of new jobs until late 2005, according to minutes from their Oct. 28 meeting that were released last week.
Unemployment Rate
The economy added a smaller-than-forecast 57,000 jobs last month, a fourth consecutive gain, according to figures from the Labor Department. The unemployment rate dropped to an eight-month low of 5.9 percent.
An index of New York manufacturing employment rose this month to match the highest reading since its inception in July 1997, according to figures earlier this week from the New York Fed. The reading held above zero for a third month, signaling factory employment in that region was expanding.
``We don't expect to do any more firings,'' said Ned Barnholt, chief executive of Agilent, the world's biggest maker of scientific testing equipment, in an interview last week. ``We will be selectively hiring back engineers and customer-support staff.''
After firing thousands of employees and undertaking other cost-saving measures, Agilent had a profit of $13 million in the quarter ended Oct. 31, following seven quarterly losses.
Last Updated: December 18, 2003 08:42 EST
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Wait wait, this is all a smoke screen by the evil Busshstappo to get
W reelected, using the media to pump out fake information and
statistics!
You know what! I bet it was Bush's fault that the tide went out in Kennebunkport, because he was in charge of the beach at the time. 
