unemployment

Washington -- First-time claims for U.S. unemployment insurance benefits were unchanged in the week ending Nov. 14, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.

New York, November 12 -- As increasing number of home owners defaulted on their mortgage payments, foreclosure filings in the nation crossed 300000 for the eight month straight, according to data provider RealtyTrac Inc.

As exciting as it was to see the Dow poke its head back up
over

10,000yesterday, this morning's spike in the country's
unemployment rate shows that we still have a way to go before
we can call this an economic recovery.

Washington -- The U.S. unemployment rate jumped 0.4 percentage points to 10.2 percent in October, far higher than expectations, the Department of Labor said Friday.

Ottawa-- Canada's unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 8.6 percent in October, reflecting a loss of 43,000 jobs, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

In normal times, an unemployment figure hovering within
spitting distance of 10% would be bad news indeed. These are
far from normal times, of course, and the stock market has
been defying the laws of economic gravity for a while now.
It's shot up sharply, even though nearly a tenth of the
available workforce has no work. Indeed, the S&P 500 has
tacked on more than 50% since its March lows.

New York, October 24 -- As the nation’s economy is trying to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, President Barack Obama in his weekly radio address underscored the importance of small businesses, calling them “the engine" of growth.

Over the last year or so, many consumers

traded downto discounters like
Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) as credit
tightened and unemployment rose. Financial results from
high-end retailers such as
Saks (NYSE: SKS),
Nordstrom , and
Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) have been
nothing but ugly, as consumers looked for deals and shunned
expensive merchandise. But while the

death of luxuryseemed imminent not too long ago, the
market for big-ticket goods now faces a more uncertain
outlook.

Madrid -- Researchers in Madrid said unemployment would likely peak at 25 percent in Spain in the next three years with the building industry's losses escalating.

Sacramento -- California officials said the Golden State lost 12,300 jobs in August, a sharp decline from July, but still enough to push unemployment to a postwar record.