Jobless Claims Rise; Factory Orders Take a Spill
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WASHINGTON — The number of jobless Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, while factory orders in August took a big spill. Jobless claims climbed by 16,000 to 317,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said yesterday. Wall Street expected a level of 310,000 for the week ended September 29. Investors are on edge over Friday’s report on September non-farm job payrolls. Payrolls fell by 4,000 in August, the first decline in four years. Still, analysts generally expect Friday’s report will show rising payrolls. The median estimate of 23 economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires is an increase of 100,000 non-farm jobs in September.
“The jobless claims data still show a healthy labor market,” a chief economist at A.G. Edwards & Sons, Gary Thayer, said. “Claims were up but remained in an area reflecting good demand for labor. It doesn’t suggest we’re seeing companies laying off a lot of workers yet.
“Its still consistent with a healthy economy outside of housing,” Mr. Thayer added.
The four-week average of new claims, which economists use to gauge underlying labor market trends, rose by 500 last week to 312,750.
“Although the number of new filers rose somewhat above trend in August amidst the turmoil in financial markets, the reported surge in job cut announcements and the layoffs associated with the closure of dozens of mortgage lenders have failed to persistently boost the level of initial claims,” an economist at RBS Greenwich Capital Markets, Omair Sharif, wrote in a note to clients.
A separate Commerce Department report showed orders during August for manufactured goods decreased by 3.3%. It was the sharpest drop since January. A yardstick for capital spending by businesses — non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft — fell 0.5%. Some economists expect capital spending to stay soft through the end of the year because of the credit crunch and greater uncertainty about the outlook for economic growth.
However, unfilled orders for all factory goods, a sign of future demand, were 1.2% higher.
