m i economic economic indicators unemployment rates jobless clai News

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Portugal Seeks Bailout, Europe Debt Crisis Spreads

LISBON, Portugal -- Portugal asked for a bailout Wednesday to relieve its crushing debt, joining Greece and Ireland by becoming the third European nation to ask for outside help amid a bruising European financial crisis. Prime Minister Jose Socrates went on national television to announce that Portugal must take...

Unemployment Rate Falls to 8.8 Percent, a 2-Year Low

WASHINGTON -- The unemployment rate fell to a two-year low of 8.8 percent in March, capping the strongest two months of hiring since before the recession began. The economy added 216,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday. Factories, retailers, the education and health care sectors and professional and...

Bernanke: Mideast Threat to US Economy Is Mild -- For Now

The spike in fuel prices, sparked by Mideast turmoil, currently poses only a mild threat of broader inflation because the ailing U.S. jobs market has kept a lid on wages, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress today. But a continuing rise in the prices of oil and other commodities like steel, cotton and food...

Winter Weather Isn't What's Ailing a Sick Jobs Economy

Amid some awfully wicked weather, the U.S. economy last month eked out a feeble number of new jobs, and hundreds of thousands of Americans stopped looking for work, which paradoxically contributed to a drop in the unemployment rate. But today's weak report from the Labor Department wasn't the result of a wintry economic...

Opinion: One Cheer for the Unemployment Number

The sharp drop in the unemployment rate to 9 percent should be treated as good news. Any drop, after all, is welcome. But just how good this news is depends entirely on how low your expectations are for this economic recovery. After all, the unemployment rate has been at or above 9 percent for 21 months now -- a grim...