Acting with uncommon speed, Congress sent President Barack Obama sweeping, bipartisan legislation late Thursday night to avoid a Jan. 1 spike in income taxes for millions and renew jobless benefits for victims of the worst recession in 80 years.
Chief regional economist Jim Diffley of IHS Global Insight says Indiana has grown faster than other manufacturing-heavy Midwestern states.
In November, the economy added just 39,000 net jobs and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent. Many economists predict December will be a stronger month for hiring.
With hiring so weak, the unemployment rate rose from 9.6 percent to 9.8 percent. The jobless rate has now topped 9 percent for 19 straight months, the longest stretch on record.
Difficulties adjusting for the Thanksgiving holiday contributed to last week’s spike in new applications, a government analyst said. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths volatility, fell to 431,000 last week, a two-year low.
The Indiana Department of Workforce Development says as many as 4,000 Hoosiers per week will run out of unemployment benefits beginning Sunday.
A Labor Department analyst said weekly claims are volatile during the week between the Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving holidays. A key question is whether claims will remain this low in future weeks.
Indiana’s unemployment rate in October dipped to 9.9 percent, marking the first time the rate has been below double digits since March.
The U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday that initial claims for jobless aid dropped by 24,000, to a seasonally adjusted 435,000. Many Wall Street economists expected a smaller decrease.
Newly elected members of Congress will get a reminder Friday of the economic challenges they face in January: The jobs report for October is expected to show hiring weak and unemployment still high. The outlook for 2011 isn't much better.
The government reported Friday morning that the economy expanded at a 2-percent annual rate in the July-September quarter. It marked a slight improvement from the feeble 1.7-percent growth in the April-June quarter.
Indiana’s unemployment rate in September was 0.1 percentage point lower than in August and the same as it was the same month last year. But it remains above the national rate of 9.6 percent.
Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the drop wasn't enough to reverse a big increase the previous week.
The economy is picking up its pace but not quickly enough to satisfy the public, Fifth Third Bank strategist John Augustine said Friday. It may not return to pre-recession levels until 2017.
The state will begin paying millions of dollars in penalties and interest to the federal government next year because it has borrowed nearly $2 billion to pay for jobless benefits.
Applications for jobless benefits rose last week for the first time in three weeks, evidence that companies are still reluctant to hire in a slow economy.
The nation’s jobless rate has topped 9.5 percent for 14 straight months, the longest stretch since the 1930s.
In May, only one-quarter of 2010 college graduates who applied for a job actually received one, compared with more than half in 2007. About as many college graduates of all ages also are plagued by underemployment, working jobs below their skill level—including Butler grad Tom Otero.
The rise suggests that jobs remain scarce and some companies are still cutting workers amid sluggish economic growth.
The state’s jobless rate in August remained unchanged from the previous month’s figure of 10.2 percent. The loss of seasonal government and manufacturing jobs offset the addition of 3,000 private-sector jobs.
