In the near future, TV is going to be available anywhere, on any device, at any time. Just don’t expect it to be free.
That’s because of the big, unanswered question being asked by networks, cable companies, advertisers and technology providers: How do we make money from it?
Viewers are already taking full advantage of online television. Broadcast networks make many of their shows available on Web sites like Hulu and YouTube a day after they air, and many cable stations also put their shows on the Web.
In December, more than 178 million Americans watched TV online, streaming 33 billion shows, according to online data tracker comScore.
But the business model for free Internet television doesn’t work yet. Networks can’t get advertisers to pay the same as they do for broadcast and cable TV, and networks and cable providers are reluctant to lose their mutually beneficial partnerships.
In the traditional TV model, networks get paid tens of billions of dollars by advertisers and billions more in retransmission fees by cable and satellite providers. Satellite and cable providers get paid in subscription fees by customers.
The free Internet TV model cuts out the middle man: Networks post their content directly online and advertisers pay for the right to place their ads on the Web site and within the video. Satellite and cable providers aren’t part of the equation, and networks lose out on their licensing fees.
Advertisers hesitant to join in
The loss of revenue from cable and satellite companies isn’t the only reason why free Internet TV isn’t working yet. Advertisers remain coy: Broadcast and cable TV advertising is a $70 billion a year business, but Internet TV advertising has yet to crack $1 billion, according to Matt Wasserlauf, chief executive of online advertising network BBE.
Many advertisers are wary of sponsoring online TV, primarily because the measures of those ads’ effectiveness and reach are still up in the air, say media analysts.
"Advertisers aren’t going to pay for the right to sponsor content unless they know how many people are watching it," said Todd Dagres, general partner at Spark Capital. "The technology is available, but it is still in the process of being implemented."
The online video ad world is also a different ball game than the TV commercial sphere. Internet TV ads are interactive, unlike traditional TV ads, and effective Internet TV ads require a whole new level of creativity. Advertisers are still trying to determine the best way to reach potential customers online.
"The way people approach online ads is qualitatively different from the way they approach TV ads," said Shishir Mehrotra, director of video monetization at Google (GOOG, Fortune 500). "The biggest blockers to advertisers from making the jump to the Internet from TV are creative ones."
The lack of live TV online — and the big advertising bucks that come with it — is another huge factor preventing online TV from being successful. Though some networks have begun to air some live content online, notably CBS’s online coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament, live Internet TV is far from pervasive.
Live sporting events like the Super Bowl and live shows like American Idol command the biggest advertising dollars fast cash without a hassle. But separate licensing fees, bandwidth limitations and a low return on investment have held networks back from putting more live content online thus far.
With the business model still shaky, media company CEOs have suggested that free online TV is coming to an end.
How the online TV business can work
With free heading out the door soon, subscription services are the likely replacement.
Media CEOs like News Corp’s (NWS, Fortune 500) Rupert Murdoch, Disney’s Bob Iger and NBC’s Jeff Zucker, who co-own Hulu, have all hinted at making Hulu a subscription-based service. They just haven’t said how much users will have to pay.
Netflix (NFLX) has been operating a successful subscription-based streaming service for quite some time, and on Monday, Walmart (WMT, Fortune 500) announced that it had purchased Netflix’s online streaming video competitor Vudu. In December, Apple said it had negotiated deals with CBS (CBS, Fortune 500) and Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) to launch a streaming subscription-based service for Apple TV.
Cable companies have gotten in on the action as well. CNNMoney.com parent company Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500) partnered with Comcast (CMCSA, Fortune 500) last summer to test its subscription-based "TV Everywhere," which made Time Warner content available online to Comcast subscribers for no additional charge. Comcast deemed the project a success, and has continued the TV Everywhere partnership on its Fancast Web site.
Subscription services generally bring more content to the Web than free services, including some cable shows that have been exclusively available on TV or for purchase on iTunes.
There’s something in it for the cable companies too: As technology improves and consumers begin watching more online, on-demand content directly on their television sets, cable and satellite providers could have a role in bringing that content to consumers by providing customer service for Internet TV like they do for "regular" TV.
"If consumers want high-quality content with a high-quality experience and high-quality service, there’s a place and a role for companies that have cables piped into your house," said David Wertheimer, executive director of the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California.
In the end, experts say that the free, advertising-supported model may exist for some content, but the subscription model will have to at least run along side it.
Experts say commoditized programming like news, cooking programs and how-to shows will stay free, because there will always be another site offering the same content for free. But your favorite shows that can’t be duplicated and cost millions of dollars to produce are something you will have to pay for.
"Every piece of content that is commoditized by nature has to be free," said Ran Harnevo, chief executive of 5min Media, an independent digital media group. "On the other hand, if everything were free, you would lose the production value of good shows. So people will have to pay for content that’s not commoditized."
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Fixing millions of gas pedals and brakes and convincing customers their vehicles are safe could end up being the least of Toyota’s challenges. Some experts think the price tag from legal settlements could end up topping the company’s estimate of $2 billion in recall costs.
There are already more than 30 U.S. lawsuits filed against Toyota involving the problems with its gas pedals alone, according to Craig Hutson, senior investment grade analyst at Gimme Credit, a bond research service firm. And there are more lawsuits are in the works.
"Lawyers are champing at the bit to get at these guys, and the company has come out and largely admitted mistakes in respect to these issues," said Hutson. "It’s hard to put a dollar amount on it, but multi-billion dollar costs are not out of the realm of possibility."
Hutson isn’t alone in worrying about how much lawsuits could hurt Toyota. Credit rating agency Moody’s cited the litigation risks when it warned Tuesday that it might downgrade Toyota’s credit ratings.
The company also faces at least one class action suit involving problems with the brakes on 2010 models of the Prius and other hybrid vehicles. Toyota announced a recall for those hybrids Tuesday.
New reports of problems with the steering of its Corolla could mean more lawsuits against Toyota.
Safety experts estimate official complaints involving Toyota gas pedals show there have been 19 fatalities involving the recalled vehicles.
But Gary Robb, an attorney in Kansas City who is looking at filing cases, says he believes that number will increase significantly as people look more deeply into accidents for which no cause was ever determined.
"We’ve had so many calls from so many people now that this news has come out," he said. "Accidents that were heretofore attributed to driver error are very likely due to a malfunction of the gas pedal. There’s going to be dozens of those incidents arising."
Cases involving death or serious injury will likely be handled in individual lawsuits.
Suing to reclaim lost value. Robb said he’s also looking at a class action case to try to recover billions of dollars he claims were lost in the resale value of the recalled vehicles. He said his experts estimate total losses could be in the $6 billion to $8 billion range paydayloans. "For many people their car is their second largest investment," he said.
Other experts suggest that the loss in resale value is not as high as Robb’s figure, but that it is still likely in the billions.
Kelley Blue Book, a leading used-car value service, is lowering its estimated prices for the recalled models this Friday by 2.5% to 3.5%. That’s enough to lower the value of each vehicle by between $250 and $800.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration estimates that more than 6 million U.S. vehicles are affected by the recall. So based on Kelley Blue Book’s estimates, the overall loss in resale value is likely to be at least $2 billion.
Toyota wouldn’t comment on its legal exposure from the recalls. As to the reduction in resale value by Kelley Blue Book it said, "Historically Toyota and Lexus vehicles have held their value very well relative to other vehicles. We expect that to be true in the future as well."
It’s not clear whether courts will allow plaintiffs to collect that much money. James Henderson, a law professor at Cornell University, said legal precedent is against them.
But Henderson does think the recall opens Toyota for a rash of new personal injury cases. He added that if it is determined that Toyota knew of problems with the gas pedals and did not warn a driver involved in an accident, the company could be hit with punitive damages.
Hutson said beyond the cost of any jury verdicts or settlements, the lawsuits have the potential of causing continued damage to Toyota’s reputation, keeping the problems and company’s failures in the news. That could cost the company additional sales going forward.
He said if any documents come out which prove Toyota engineers knew something needed to be fixed, it will be difficult for Toyota to ever regain consumers’ trust.
"When your image is one that has been largely built on quality and dependability, you can’t afford that kind of smoking gun," Hutson said.
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European finance chiefs sought to bolster international confidence in Greece’s ability to cut its budget deficit by endorsing the country’s austerity plan and promising to ensure the government delivers on it.
“The European members of the G-7 will make sure it is managed,” French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told reporters on Feb. 6 after meeting counterparts and central bankers from the Group of Seven in Iqaluit, Canada. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the ECB is “confident” Greece will cut its deficit below the limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product in 2012 from 12.7 percent.
The struggles of the Greek government to convince investors it can reduce the largest budget gap in the European Union without outside assistance forced their way on to the agenda of the G-7 talks after the MSCI World Index of stocks fell to its lowest in four months on concern of a default.
“I just want to underscore they made it clear to us, they the European authorities, that they will manage this with great care,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in Iqaluit. “The European authorities gave us a very comprehensive review of the program now in place to address the challenges faced by the Greek economy.”
Greek bonds have tumbled in the past two months, pushing the yield on the country’s 10-year debt above 7 percent, the highest since 1999, the year the euro began trading. The premium investors charge to hold Greek 10-year bonds over the benchmark German bund has widened to 356 basis points, about 10 times what it was two years ago, and credit-default swaps on Greek debt rose to a record on Feb. 5.
Foreign-Exchange Markets
“No measure of official reassurance would be enough unless the nations in question retain credibility in financial markets, which remains to be seen,” Geoffrey Yu, a currency strategist at UBS AG in London, said in a note to clients. “We expect foreign-exchange markets to continue trading on a risk-averse tone.”
Borrowing costs have also jumped for Portugal and Spain, raising concern among policy makers that Greece’s woes will be shared elsewhere in Europe and overseas as governments try to rein in the record budget deficits they ran up fighting the worst global recession since World War II.
“This is a crisis that has been on the horizon for quite a while,” Harvard University Professor Niall Ferguson told Bloomberg Television, adding that Belgium and Italy are also at risk. “The contagion is going to spread.”
‘Intense Concern’
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in Iqaluit that policy makers outside Europe “have the impression that Europeans will solve this problem and that they’re aware of the problem.” Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the size of Greece’s economy means “in global terms it’s not of intense concern.”
Schaeuble said Greece still has to “pay a price” for running up the deficit and said the euro remains “stable.”
“Euro-area members of the G-7 gave an update on the efforts and commitments by the Greece government to ensure fiscal sustainability and economic reform,” Trichet said. “We said that the euro area would continue to monitor closely the implementation of this stability program.”
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has already pledged to step up budget cuts if needed and EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, who also attended the G-7 meeting, said last month that leaders have no “plan B” to help Greece.
Painful Measures
Most Greeks object to increases in the retirement age and fuel taxes even as a majority say painful measures are needed to reduce the budget gap, according to a Kappa Research poll for To Vima newspaper, published yesterday.
Harvard’s Ferguson said Greece’s economy will suffer as it tries to restore fiscal order with the resulting increase in unemployment triggering public strikes. Teachers, hospital workers and tax collectors already have called a 24-hour strike for Feb. 10 and private-sector workers will follow two weeks later.
“It’s going to be messy,” said Ferguson, who predicted Germany and France will provide financial aid if needed. “Suddenly the markets woke up and realized these weren’t credible fiscal policies.”
Wall Street surged Monday, starting off the new year on a positive note, after a report showed manufacturing activity is picking up and the weak dollar propelled commodity prices and stocks.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rallied 156 points, or 1.5%. The S&P 500 index (SPX) rose 18 points, or 1.6%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) gained 39 points, or 1.7%. All three major gauges closed at 15-month highs.
"The fact that stocks are up so much today is an encouraging sign, but we need to see a few days of follow through," said Will Hepburn, chief investment officer at Hepburn Capital Management.
He said the first few trading sessions of a new year are typically positive and that he wants to see several more days of gains on strong trading volume before he’s willing to say that the rally has recharged.
Stocks fell Thursday in a thinly traded session on the last day of 2009. All financial markets were closed Friday in observance of New Year’s Day.
The last month of 2009 saw stocks churning in a narrow range, managing modest gains, but not really charging ahead like in earlier months.
The market lost some momentum in November and December, Hepburn said. That slowdown coincided with the dollar beginning to firm up and investors opting to close the books early after a difficult year.
A tumultuous 2009 ended with substantial gains. The S&P 500 gained 23.4%, the Dow industrials gained 18.8% and the Nasdaq composite gained 44%.
Stocks are up even more substantially since bottoming in March at the height of the financial market crisis. After closing at a 12-year low on March 9, the Dow gained 59% and the S&P 500 gained 65% through year end. After closing at a 6-year low on the same date, the Nasdaq gained 79%.
Tuesday brings reports on factory orders, pending home sales and auto and truck sales.
Economy: The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index rose to 55.9 in December from 53.6 in November, signifying a wider expansion in the sector. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought it would rise to 54.3. Stronger reports were also released in Asia, adding to bets that the global manufacturing sector is recovering.
A separate report from the U.S. government showed that construction spending fell 0.6% in November versus forecasts for a drop of 0.5%. Spending fell 0.5% in October.
On the move: Gains were broad based, with 27 of 30 Dow issues rallying, led by Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500), Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500), Boeing (BA, Fortune 500), United Technologies (UTX, Fortune 500), IBM (IBM, Fortune 500), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, Fortune 500) business cards.
In other news, Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG plans to take control of Alcon (ACL) by paying $38.5 billion to buy the 77% of the eye care products maker it doesn’t already own. The deal involved Novartis buying out Nestle SA’s 52% stake in Alcon for $28 billion in cash and then merging with Alcon to access the remaining 23% held by minority shareholders.
Alcon shares fell nearly 6%.
Bernanke defends Fed policy: The Federal Reserve chairman said Sunday that the central bank’s decision to keep interest rates very low between 2002 and 2006 was appropriate and not the cause of the housing market bubble.
He said regulation would have been a better way to avert the collapse that ensued when home prices crumbled, leading to massive foreclosures, billions in losses for banks and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The Senate is currently considering Bernanke’s nomination by President Obama for another term as Fed chairman. The Senate Banking Committee already gave its approval last month. His current term ends on Jan. 31.
World markets: Asian markets gained, with the exception of the Hong Kong Hang Seng. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.6%, France’s CAC 40 added 2% and the German DAX rallied 1.5%.
Commodities and the dollar: The dollar tumbled versus other major currencies.
The weaker dollar gave a lift to dollar-traded commodities.
COMEX gold for February delivery settled up $22.10 to $1,118.30 an ounce. Gold closed at an all-time high of $1,218.30 an ounce earlier this month.
U.S. light crude oil for February delivery gained $2.15 to settle at $81.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest close since October 2008.
Bonds: Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 3.81% from 3.84% late Thursday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers four to one on volume of 1.02 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers topped decliners by over three to one on volume of 1.92 billion shares.
The St. Louis Council of Construction Consumers gave a Best Practice Award for the renovation of the historic Woolworth Building in midtown St. Louis.
The $8 million renovation project was completed last year. Involved in the project were McCormack Baron Salazar, S.M. Wilson, Trivers Associates, Christner, Fox Architects, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Craft Alliance and Grand Center.
In addition, the council gave the following Best Practice Awards for:
— Design effectiveness for the Ameren Training Center in St. Louis. Recipients were AmerenUE, Burns & McDonnell, and Kozeny-Wagner.
— Pre-project planning for BJC St. Peters Hospital. BJC, BJC St. Peters, Pratt Design, Tarlton, Murphy, Sachs, KJWW, and LEAN Project Consulting payday loans for people with bad credit.
— Partnering for the SSM St. Clare Health Center at Fenton. SSM, Alberici, and HGA.
The council also presented the Construction Industry Safety Excellence Award to Nooter Construction.
Finally, the council presented the following Diversity awards:
— Organization of the Year to Metropolitan Sewer District.
— Minority/Woman Business to BAM Contracting.
— Diversity Champions. Deborah Henry of St. Louis Community College, and Scott Wilson of S.M. Wilson.
New Zealand’s economy grew less than economists estimated in the third quarter, driving the nation’s currency to a three-month low on speculation the central bank may not need to raise interest rates until mid-2010.
Gross domestic product rose 0.2 percent from the previous quarter, Statistics New Zealand said in Wellington today. That was half the median forecast of a 0.4 percent gain in a Bloomberg survey of 12 economists.
A decline in construction, manufacturing and business investment hobbled New Zealand’s recovery from its worst recession in 30 years. Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard said this month the bank may raise the benchmark interest rate from a record low sooner than he previously indicated should the economic rebound be sustained.
“The recovery is in train, but has been off to a subdued start,” said Khoon Goh, senior markets economist at ANZ National Bank Ltd. in Wellington. The data doesn’t “warrant hiking rates as early as March. We see June 2010 as the central case for when the tightening cycle starts.”
New Zealand’s dollar dropped to 69.75 U.S. cents, the lowest since Sept. 14, from 70.20 cents before the report was released. It bought 69.91 cents at 6:30 p.m. in Wellington. The currency had climbed 12 percent against the U.S. dollar the past six months and the NZX 50 stock index gained 14 percent on signs of a pickup in the economy.
Global Rates
Swaps traders are betting that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will increase the benchmark rate by 203 basis points over the next 12 months, according to a Credit Suisse index.
“The recovery remains fragile,” Finance Minister Bill English said today. “To climb back up the world income ladder and to replace jobs lost during the recession, we need businesses to have the confidence to invest and create jobs.”
Central bankers around the world are assessing when to remove stimulus as the global recession abates. Australia and Norway have started raising rates and the Federal Reserve has committed to scale down buying of mortgage-backed debt.
Europe’s economy emerged from its worst slump in more than six decades, growing 0.4 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months. The U.S. economy grew at a revised 2.2 percent annual pace last quarter. Australia’s economy expanded in the three months through September for a third straight quarter.
Governor’s Comments
New Zealand’s central bank may begin to “remove monetary stimulus around the middle of 2010,” Bollard said on Dec. 10. In October, the governor said the nation’s benchmark interest rate would be kept on hold until the second half of next year.
The economy shrank 1.3 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, today’s report showed. That compared with a 1.2 percent contraction estimated by economists.
“The central bank needs strong data in order to bring forward its tightening cycle to the same degree as the market has priced in,” said Stephen Toplis, head of research at Bank of New Zealand Ltd. in Wellington. “Is this the sort of data that would shift the Reserve Bank from its published view? You’d have to say no.”
Business investment fell 0.9 percent, the fifth straight decline, as companies spent less on plant and machinery, today’s report showed. Manufacturing dropped 1.9 percent and construction declined 4.4 percent.
Manufacturers, Retailers
Bridgestone Corp., the world’s largest tiremaker by sales, said in October it would close a plant in Christchurch, New Zealand, by the end of the year because of lower cost competitiveness.
Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Ltd., the country’s biggest manufacturer of washers and dryers, said sales in the three months ended Sept. 30 fell 11 percent from a year earlier. Sales are likely to remain flat for the rest of the fiscal year, Chief Executive Officer Stuart Broadhurst said Nov. 27.
Smiths City Group Ltd. yesterday said sales at its furniture and appliance stores dropped 6.2 percent in the six months ended Oct. 31. “The retail environment has continued to be very tough and in big ticket, the worst for 20 years,” Chairman Craig Boyce said.
Warehouse Group Ltd., the nation’s biggest discount retailer, last month said sales were below expectations in the three months ended Nov. 1.
Household Spending
Household spending, which makes up 60 percent of the economy, rose 0.8 percent in the third quarter. Sales of cars, home appliances and other so-called durable goods gained 2 percent. Purchases of food and non-durable items fell.
Exports of goods and services were unchanged in the third quarter as increased spending by tourists offset a decline in commodity exports including meat and seafood.
The GDP deflator, a measure of prices, rose 2 percent in the year ended Sept. 30.
“GDP growth is showing little upward momentum from one quarter to the next,” said Ian Pollick, economics strategist at TD Securities in Toronto. “From a monetary policy perspective, this particular report is unlikely to light a fire under the RBNZ.”
Retail sales jumped 1.3% in November, according to the Commerce Department, well more than the expected increase.
Economists had expected retail sales to rise 0.6% from October, according to a consensus of forecasts compiled by Briefing.com.
The seasonally adjusted November increase represents $352.1 billion worth of monthly sales. This is slightly less than the October increase, when retail sales jumped 1.4% month-to-month.
Automobile sales had little to do with November’s gains. Without including autos, retail sales rose 1.2% last month.
A consensus of economists had projected ex-auto sales to rise 0.4% in November, compared to October, when ex-auto sales notched up 0.2%.
The year-to-year increase was more dramatic No teletrak payday loan. November retail sales jumped 1.9%, compared to the same month in 2008.
November sales included Black Friday, the post-Thanksgiving shopping spree that is generally one of the hottest days of the year for retail. But this year’s Black Friday disappointed retailers, with sales rising an anemic 0.5%, falling short of Thomson Reuters’ forecast of a 2.1% rise.
Also today, at 9:55 a.m. ET, the University of Michigan will release its preliminary consumer sentiment index for November. The November index is expected to rise to 68.8, according to a Briefing.com consensus, from the prior month’s index of 67.4.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will be a featured speaker at an economic forum in Atlanta next month.
Bernanke will speak Jan. 3 at the American Economic Association annual meeting at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.
Bernanke’s speech will open the AEA’s 125th anniversary meeting. The AEA publishes several economics periodicals, including the American Economic Review and the Journal of Economic Literature easy payday loans.
Other notables attending the three-day summit include Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.
The reactor would have command-and-control systems and passive safety features, and be buried in an underground containment building and monitored 24-7 with sensors. It wouldn’t need water for cooling. The fuel would be loaded in the factory prior to delivery and there would be enough to operate nearly 20 years. After that, its uranium fuel cartridge would be switched out with a new cartridge. About 95 per cent of the fuel waste from the old cartridges would be recycled into new fuel.
Sandia isn’t the only group thinking this way. Power-plant equipment maker Babcock & Wilcox has entered the small nuclear market, and a number of start-ups – Hyperion Power and NuScale Power among them – are also blazing a trail.
The number of first-time filers for unemployment insurance fell last week to a nearly 15-month low, according to a government report released Wednesday.
There were 457,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Nov. 28, down 5,000 from a revised 462,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said.
That’s the lowest level since the week ended Sept. 6, 2008. The week being reported included the Thanksgiving holiday.
A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected 480,000 new claims for the week.
The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 481,250, down 14,250 from the previous week.
Continuing claims: The government also said 5,465,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended Nov. 21, the most recent data available. That’s up 28,000 from the preceding week.
The 4-week moving average for ongoing claims fell by 75,750 to 5,541,500.
But the slide in continuing claims may signal that more filers are falling off those rolls and into extended benefits.
Continuing claims reflect people filing each week after their initial claim until the end of their standard benefits, which usually last 26 weeks. The figures do not include those who have moved to state or federal extensions, nor people who have exhausted their benefits.
Obama’s jobs forum. The Obama administration is holding a jobs summit Thursday. The president will meet with labor representatives, financial experts, small-business owners and other business leaders to discuss how to revive the labor market no fax pay day loan.
The 130 forum participants are meeting on the eve of the government’s November unemployment report.
The nation is expected to have lost another 125,000 jobs, with unemployment remaining at a 26-year high of 10.2%, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
Last month, the Labor Department reported that the nation’s unemployment rate rose above 10% for the first time since 1983.
A separate report released by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Wednesday showed the pace of job losses slowing to the lowest level in two years, but the number of cuts announced in 2009 have already exceeded last year’s total.
State-by-state data: Only one state reported initial claims fell by more than 1,000 for the week ended Nov. 21, the most recent data available.
Claims in Michigan decreased by 1,242, which the state attributed to fewer layoffs in the auto industry.
Nineteen states said that claims increased by more than 1,000. California reported that claims rose by 14,796; Illinois had 6,168 more claims; North Carolina’s increased by 5,557; Pennsylvania saw a jump of 5,285; and Texas claims rose by 3,500.
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