The number of people filing initial claims for jobless aid unexpectedly plunged 48,000 last week to 319,000, the Labor Department said. This is the largest drop in more than three years and much lower than Wall Street economists' forecast which had expected claims to move down to 345,000 from the 367,000 reported for the prior week.

The Labor Department report shows that 157,000 jobs were added to U.S. payrolls in the month, up from the a revised 137,000 added in November. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that there would be 175,000 jobs added in the month. The unemployment rate remained at 5.4 percent.

The number of new people signing up for jobless benefits shot up last week by 43,000 to 364,000, taking claims to their highest level since late September, surprising economists who were forecasting claims to rise to around 331,000.

The number of Americans filing initial claims for jobless pay fell by much more than expected last week to 317,000. It was the sharpest decline in three years. The four-week moving average, which is less volatile, dipped to nearly 338,000 claims.

The number of Americans filing initial claims for jobless pay grew unexpectedly last week to 357,000, rising for second consecutive week to highest level since September. Analysts had forecast first-time claims for state unemployment benefits would fall to 335,000 in the week ended Dec. 4 from 349,000 the previous week.

U.S. employers pulled back on hiring as they headed into the holiday shopping season, adding just 112,000 new jobs overall in November. It was the weakest gain in five months and about half of what economists had forecast. That's down from the revised 303,000 the previous month. Economists had forecast an increase of 200,000 to 225,000 jobs.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance aid rose to 349,000 in the Thanksgiving Day shortened week ended Nov. 27, from a revised 324,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department said. Wall Street analysts had forecast a rise to 330,000 from the originally reported 323,000 in the week ended Nov. 20.

First-time claims for state unemployment insurance aid rose to 350,000 in the week ended Oct. 23 from an upwardly revised 330,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said. The rise in claims was larger than Wall Street economists' expectations for a rise to 338,000 from the prior week's original measure of 329,000.

Continuing job worries drove consumer confidence lower in October for the third consecutive month. The confidence index fell - a closely watched economic reading by the Wall Street, to 92.8 from a revised 96.7 reading in September and quite below expectations. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast the index to fall to 94.0 in the latest survey. The latest number is the worst reading since March, when the index stood at 88.5.

The Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators fell 0.1 percent last month, a smaller drop than August's 0.3 percent decline. The index is meant to forecast the economy's direction in the next six to nine months. Pulling the index lower were initial jobless claims and consumer goods orders while building permits edged higher in the month.

The number of people filing initial claims for U.S. jobless aid rose more than expected to 352,000 last week, a U.S. Dept. of Labor report showed Thursday. Economists had forecasted a climb to 340,000. The closely watched four-week moving average of claims, which irons out week-to-week volatility, rose for the fifth straight week, climbing to 353,000 in the week ended Oct. 9 and is at its highest since the week ended Feb. 28.

U.S. employers added just 96,000 jobs in September while the unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 5.4%, according to a government report today that came in much weaker than Wall Street expectations. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com found a consensus forecast of 150,000 new jobs.

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 369,000 in the week ended Sept. 25, up from a revised 351,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported. Economists expected 340,000 people to file for assistance, according to Briefing.com. The four-week moving average of initial claims, which is meant to smooth out some of those swings, came in at 343,500, up from a revised 341,250 the previous week.

Economists are reining in estimates for hiring and economic growth. A panel of economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal expect the economy to add 182,000 jobs a month over the next year. That's down from an estimate in August of 194,000 jobs a month and one in May of 207,000 jobs a month. The group of 55 economists also trimmed their forecasts for economic growth to 3.6 percent in the third quarter and 4 percent in the fourth. In June, forecasts came in at an average rate of 4.3 percent over the balance of the year, according to the report.

U.S. employment grew by 144,000 jobs in August, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 5.4% from 5.5% but the drop was a result of job-seekers abandoning their search, not finding work. The job gain came in below economists' expectations of 158,000 jobs, the number needed to keep up with work force growth.

Jobless claims rose to the highest level since April 10, partly reflecting lingering effects of Hurricane Charley. First- time applications for unemployment benefits rose by 19,000 to 362,000 in the week ended Aug. 28 from 343,000 the week before, the Labor Department said in Washington. Claims were expected to fall to 340,000, according to a Bloomberg News survey.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits edged down last week for a third consecutive time to 331,000, down 3,000 from the previous week. The Labor Department report said that 2.9 million Americans were drawing unemployment benefits for the week ending Aug. 7, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week and the highest level for this figure since July 17. The economy created just 78,000 new jobs in June and an even smaller 32,000 jobs in July.

America's payrolls grew by an anemic 32,000 new jobs in July, suggesting the economy is not in good shape. Analysts were expecting the economy to add anywhere from 215,000 to 247,000 jobs in July. The report rattled Wall Street and sent stocks tumbling. The latest snapshot on employment growth showed the smallest gain in hiring since December. Job gains reported earlier for May and June also were lowered.

The number of job cuts planned by U.S. employers rose in July, an increase of 8% from June, while hiring announcements fell for the second straight month, a fall of 30% from June, according to Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Govt. data indicates that 57% of those who lost full-time jobs between 2001-2003 and found full-time work again are earning less. From January 2001 through December 2003, 5.3 million long-tenured workers were displaced from full-time or part-time jobs they had held at least three years, according to a new report released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment assistance soared by 40,000 last week, the government reported Thursday, coming in above economists' expectations. Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 349,000 in the week ended July 9, up from a revised 309,000 the prior week. Economists expected 340,000 new claims, according to Briefing.com.

Growth in the U.S. services sector slowed dramatically in June, the nation's purchasing managers reported Tuesday, coming in below the previous month's reading and well shy of economists' forecasts. The Institute for Supply Management said its services index fell to 59.9 in June, down from May's reading of 65.2, and below Wall Street's expectations for a reading of 63.0, according to Briefing.com. Employment research firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas said corporate hirings, which it began tracking in May, fell to 38,377 workers, down 31 percent from May's 55,307.

Job growth slowed dramatically in June, as employers added just 112,000 workers to payrolls last month, a number that came in well below forecasts by private economists. The gain was about half of May's revised gain of 235,000 jobs, and was the weakest since February following three straight months of strong job growth, the Labor Department reported. "This economic recovery is a lot more fragile than most of us thought," said Anthony Chan, chief economist for Banc One Investment Advisors.

Initial claims for unemployment assistance climbed to 351,000 in the week ended June 26, from a revised 350,000 the previous week. Economists expected initial claims to come in at 343,000, according to Briefing.com.

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 248,000 in May, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The number of unemployed persons was essentially unchanged at 8.2 million in May, and the unemployment rate held at 5.6 percent. The unemployment rate has been either 5.6 or 5.7 percent in each month since December 2003.

The number of job cuts planned by U.S. employers rose for the second straight month in May as firms announced plans to cut more than 73,000 jobs, an outplacement firm said Tuesday. U.S. businesses announced 73,368 job cuts in May, up from 72,184 job cuts in April, a gain of 1.6 percent, according to Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which keeps track of monthly job-cut announcements. May's announcements were 6.9 percent higher than those of May 2003, when 68,623 cuts were announced.

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rise by 12,000, above forecasts for second straight week after rising by an unexpected 13,000 a week earlier. Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 345,000 in the week ended May 15 from a revised 333,000 the previous week. Economists had expected initial claims of 326,000. Initial claims for unemployment insurance is closely watched by economists as it is an indicator of emerging employment trends.

Technology market researcher Forrester said in a report titled "Near-Term Growth of Offshoring Accelerating" that it expects the number of U.S. business service and software jobs moving offshore to reach 588,000 in 2004 from 315,000 in 2003. The loss of jobs should rise to 830,000 jobs by 2005, up 40 percent over this year, the report said. "The emotional 1 million mark" will be crossed in 2006, report author John McCarthy said in the conference call.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment assistance rose by 13,000 last week, the government reported, coming in above economists' estimates. Initial claims for unemployment insurance came in at 331,000 in the week ended May 8, from a revised 318,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported. Economists had expected initial claims of 325,000, according to Briefing.com.

U.S. employment continued to improve in April, with the economy adding 288,000 new jobs for the month and overall unemployment falling to 5.6% from 5.7%, and the number of unemployed persons, 8.2 million, was essentially unchanged in April. The number of persons unemployed for 27 weeks or longer declined by 188,000 to 1.8 million in April. These long-term unemployed persons accounted for 22.1 percent of the total unemployed.

The nation's unemployment rate bumped up to 5.7 percent in March while companies added 308,000 new jobs. But for out-of-work Americans, the economic rebound has been frustratingly slow. In March, there were 8.35 million people unemployed, compared with 8.17 million the previous month. The average duration of unemployment has been more than 20 weeks, a 20-year high.

The non-farm payroll expands by 21,000 in February. Yes, a meager 21,000 when `whisper' estimates talked of 250,000-plus. Figures for January were revised down to 97,000 from the initial report of 112,000. Net job creation in the private sector is zero, if one takes out the 21,000 jobs created in the government! Since August 2003, the economy has added only 52,000 jobs per month for the last seven months.

In January, about 34 months after the onset of recession, payrolls outside the farm sector were still down 1.8 percent from their prerecession level. That marks the first time since World War II that job totals remained lower than their previous high so long after a recession. According to Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University this is the first time a major developed economy has seen healthy growth without any jobs being added.

The nation's unemployment rate, currently at 5.6%, could jump to 9% in the next few months, according to an analysis by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The report cited an improved economic climate will lead formerly discouraged job seekers to begin searching again causing the labor pool to grow along with jobless percentage.

According to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, the outplacement firm, for the first time in three months US companies announced more than 100,000 layoffs in January. Companies reported plans to cut 117,556 jobs.

About 4.7 million Americans want jobs but are not looking for work, up from 4.6 million in January of 2003, according to the Department of Labor. There are a variety of reasons they may be unable to look for work. But some aren't looking because they believe there are no jobs out there: More than 400,000 workers are so discouraged by the job market that they've given up looking for work.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported February 6 that the US economy gained 112,000 jobs in January and that the official unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent from 5.7 in December 2003. It described the situation as little changed. The 112,000 job increase was smaller than expected and below the number necessary even to keep pace with the growth of the working-age population (150,000) and approximately half the number of jobs created at a comparable point in the last economic recovery (216,000).

The nation's unemployment rate dropped by 0.2 percent to 5.7 percent in December to the lowest level in 14 months, but employers finished the year adding just 1,000 new jobs. The reduction in unemployment rate was caused by a reduction in labor force as over 309,000 people gave up their search for jobs. Analysts had expected companies to add 100,000 to 150,000 jobs to their payrolls in December but the net gain was a disappointing 1,000 jobs. Many sectors, including retail, govt., and manufacturing sectors continued to shed jobs.

The Conference Board, a research group, reported last week that its consumer confidence index dropped in December to 91.3 after surging to a year-high 92.5 in November. The group's consumer research director, Lynn Franco, blamed the dip on lingering job anxiety.

In a report released at the briefing, the U.S. Chamber said the unemployment rate, which stood at 5.9 percent in November, was likely to drop slowly to 5.5 percent by the end of 2004, with core inflation remaining under two percent.

Economic reports released during the holiday shopping season indicate the recovery may proceed slower than initially expected. It reports that last month’s Index of Consumer Sentiment fell from 93.7 to 92.6, according to a news release by the University’s Surveys of Consumers, marking the first time the index has fallen in three months.

As the economy shows signs of improvement, hopes are high for millions of Americans who are looking for a job to come by in the New Year. While unemployment rate continues to remain high, more concerning is the fact that the number of people unemployed for over 26 weeks is at its highest levels in the about 20 years.