WASHINGTON – More people are filing for unemployment benefits and those who have jobs are working harder, according to data released today by the Labor Department.
Last week, 626,000 workers filed for first-time unemployment insurance, an increase of 35,000 over the previous week. During the same week last year there were 380,000 first-time claims. The average for the past four weeks was 582,250.
The nation lost jobs during every month of 2008 and today's data indicates that the trend is continuing into 2009. Tomorrow, the department is scheduled to release unemployment data for January. In December, the unemployment rate was 7.2%, the highest in 16 years.
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Non-farm productivity increased at an annual rate of 3.2% during the fourth quarter of 2008. Manufacturing productivity fell 3% during the fourth quarter.
On average, productivity was 2.8% last year.
Unit labor costs-payments made to workers and funds that benefit workers divided by the value of the output–rose 1.8% in the fourth quarter of 2008 and .7% over the last year.
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