Recruiting in China

THE number of US workers filing first-time applications for state unemployment benefits fell last week from a 13-month high that was inflated by end-of-year seasonal adjustments, the Labor Department said yesterday.

Initial jobless claims fell by 34,000 to 324,000 in the week that ended on December 2 from 358,000 the prior week, the department said in Washington, according to Bloomberg News. The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, rose to 328,750, the highest since May, from 325,250.

Claims from the prior week, which included Thanksgiving Day, were distorted by seasonal adjustments that cause wide fluctuations in weekly figures at this time of year, a department spokesman said. Attention will now turn to today's report on November payrolls, which may show job growth remained below the average for the year, according to a Bloomberg survey.

"Most of the jump in claims in the prior week was due to a seasonal adjustment problem around the Thanksgiving holiday," Mike Englund, chief US economist at Action Economics LLC in Boulder, Colorado, said before the report. "Most of that gain was reversed this week. Data suggest some downside risk for payrolls."

A Bloomberg survey of 40 economists forecast claims would decline to 325,000 from an originally reported 357,000. Economist estimates ranged from 300,000 to 350,000.

The number of people continuing to collect state jobless benefits rose to 2.524 million in the week that ended on November 25, the highest since January, from 2.467 million in the prior week. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the US jobless rate, held at 1.9 percent.

Forty states and territories reported a decrease in new claims, while 12 reported an increase and one had no change, the department said. Those numbers are reported with a one-week lag.

Initial jobless claims, which reflect firings, usually increase with slowing job growth, which is measured by the US government's monthly report on non-farm payrolls.

Still, as fewer women seek jobs and the population ages, the labor market remains tight. The unemployment rate was 4.4 percent in October, a five-year low, and workers' average hourly earnings rose 3.9 percent from October 2005, close to September's five-year high of 4.1 percent.

Some companies continue to hire to boost output or introduce new products.

Electric Boat Corp, a unit of General Dynamics Corp and the primary contractor on the US Navy's Virginia-class nuclear submarine, plans to hire about 200 engineers this year to work on advanced submarine concepts, said Robert Hamilton, spokesman for the Connecticut-based manufacturer of nuclear submarines .