More Layoffs & Jobless Claims

• U.S. weekly jobless claims drop 25,000 to 370,000
  marketwatch.com ^ | December 6, 2012 | Jeffry Bartash
  

  WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 370,000 in the week ended Dec. 1, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's the third straight decline and lowest reading in one month. Initial claims from two weeks ago were revised up to 395,000 from an original reading of 393,000, based on more complete data collected at the state level.
  The average of new claims over the past month, meanwhile, edged up by 2,250 to 408,000. The four-week average reduces seasonal volatility in the weekly data and is seen as a more accurate barometer of labor-market trends
  
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  McGraw-Hill plans 63 layoffs at Polaris location

  The Columbus Dispatch ^ | December 6, 2012 | Steve Wartenberg

  McGraw-Hill Education announced today it will layoff 63 employees from its Polaris offices as part of a move to reorganize and upgrade the digital quality of the kindergarten to high school products it offers. The Polaris offices are the headquarters of McGraw-Hill’s School Education division, which is part of the larger education operations. The cutbacks will reduce the number of employees at Polaris to about 510. Nationally, there will be 138 layoffs in the school education division... 

   

  Superstorm Sandy to dampen U.S. payrolls
  Reuters via Yahoo News ^ | December 7, 2012 | Lucia Mutikani
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Superstorm Sandy likely put a dent in U.S. employment growth in November, temporarily interrupting a recently established trend of modestly rising payrolls.
  Nonfarm employment is forecast to have increased by a paltry 93,000 jobs last month after advancing by 171,000 in October, according to a Reuters survey of economists. The unemployment rate is seen holding steady at 7.9 percent.
  November's anticipated job count would be the smallest in five months. Economists said the slowdown will reflect the effect of the late-October storm, which battered the densely populated East Coast. A snap back is expected in December.
  "Sandy is going to depress payroll employment growth in November, but I expect it to rebound in December," said Gus Faucher, a senior economist at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh.
  

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  Vicksburg sawmill lays off 80
  WDEF-TV / The Vicksburg Post / The Associated Press ^ | December 6, 2012
  

  VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) — About 80 employees at Anderson-Tully Company's sawmill operation at the Port of Vicksburg will be laid off by Jan. 4.
  The company tells the Vicksburg Post (http://bit.ly/TMsjgp ) that the move has been in the works for two months because of a depressed housing market.
  Company president Richard Wilkerson says a second shift is being dropped...
  

  (Excerpt) Read more at wdef.com ...

  
  

   How to read the Sandy-impacted jobs report
  Marketwatch ^ | Dec 6 2012 | Jeffrey Bartash
  The highly anticipated monthly U.S. jobs report is rarely treated as minor sideshow, but November is a different story.
  Economists believe the disruption caused by Hurricane Sandy slashed net job growth in November by more than half compared to the prior month, making it virtually impossible to figure out whether U.S. hiring trends got better or worse. They say it might take another month or two of jobs data before they can backfill and figure out how much the storm hurt hiring.
  “We won’t have a sense of what underlying job growth is until we get the December number,” said senior economist Gus Faucher at PNC Financial Services. “We know Sandy is going to have a negative impact. We just don’t know what that is.”
  

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