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A job seeker looks over federal government job titles during Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's job opportunity fair at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg 
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Joseph Stiglitz, an economics professor at Columbia University, and Marvin Goodfriend, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University, discuss Federal Reserve policy and the economy. They talk with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Televisions "Surveillance Midday." (Source: Bloomberg) More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, showing the labor market will take time to improve.
Jobless claims rose by 20,000 to 457,000 in the week ended Oct. 30 from a revised 437,000 the prior week, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The total number of people receiving unemployment insurance fell, while those on extended payments increased.
The pace of firings has held within a narrow range in 2010, showing employers continue to focus on cutting costs more than a year into the economic recovery. Calling progress toward lower joblessness and faster growth “disappointingly slow,” Federal Reserve policy makers yesterday announced plans to bolster the recovery through another round of large-scale asset purchases.
Claims have “been relatively steady, consistent with lackluster to moderate labor market conditions,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Another Labor Department report showed worker productivity rose more than forecast in the third quarter as companies redoubled efforts to rein in costs amid signs the recovery was cooling.
A measure of employee output per hour increased at a 1.9 percent annual rate after falling 1.8 percent in the previous three months. Labor costs adjusted for efficiency gains unexpectedly dropped at a 0.1 percent pace.
Stock-index futures and Treasuries held earlier gains after the reports. The December contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.9 percent to 1,208.3 at 8:57 a.m. in New York. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to price, fell to 2.50 percent from 2.57 percent late yesterday.
Exceeds Median Forecast
Economists forecast claims would rise to 442,000 from a previously estimated 434,000 the prior week, according to the median of 50 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 430,000 to 455,000.
The figures precede tomorrow’s Labor Department report on October employment. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg project companies added 80,000 positions. The unemployment rate was probably 9.6 percent for a third month, according to the survey.
The four-week moving average for claims, a less volatile measure, rose to 456,000 last week from 454,000.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits dropped by 42,000 in the week ended Oct. 23 to 4.34 million.
Extended Benefits
The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended and emergency benefits under federal programs. Those who’ve used up their traditional benefits and are now collecting emergency and extended payments increased by about 357,700 to 5.01 million in the week ended Oct. 16.
The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits fell to 3.4 percent in the week ended Oct. 23 from 3.5 percent.
The labor market and the economy were top concerns for voters heading into the Nov. 2 congressional elections in which Republicans gained control of the U.S. House and narrowed the Democratic majority in the Senate.
To spur the economy and encourage job creation, the Fed yesterday said it will purchase an additional $600 billion in Treasury securities by the end of June. The Fed will buy about $75 billion a month and “will adjust the program as needed to best foster maximum employment and price stability,” the Fed’s Open Market Committee said in a statement in Washington.
Fed on Jobs
“Currently, the unemployment rate is elevated, and measures of underlying inflation are somewhat low,” the FOMC said. Progress in reaching its dual mandate of stable prices and low unemployment “has been disappointingly slow,” it said.
Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. is cutting more than 450 jobs in its selling, general and administrative areas this year and expects to make more reductions over the next two years, Chief Operating Officer Steven Klinger said on a conference call Nov. 1. The second-largest U.S. maker of corrugated packaging emerged from bankruptcy protection in June.
Some companies plan to expand. Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Rockwell Collins Inc., a maker of cockpit instruments and radios, last week said it’ll add 800 people, boosting staff by 4 percent during the next 12 months. Ford Motor Co., the second- largest U.S. automaker, said it will spend $850 million and add 1,200 jobs in Michigan by 2013 as sales rebound.
To contact the reporters on this story: Courtney Schlisserman in Washington at cschlisserma@bloomberg.net; Bob Willis in Washington at Bobwillis@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net
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