WASHINGTON—Government data due out Thursday is expected to show that initial claims filed for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week for the second straight prior period.
Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR forecast that claims declined to 380,000 for the week that ended June 21. The Labor Department is scheduled to release the data at 8:30 a.m. EDT.
The department last week said applications for unemployment benefits fell by 5,000 to 381,000. The slight decline did little to ease concerns about weakness in the labor market after the government earlier this month reported the unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent in May from 5 percent in April, the biggest one-month jump in decades.
Employers also cut 49,000 jobs in May, the fifth straight month of losses. And the government's four-week moving average of new claims, which smooths out week-to-week fluctuations, last week rose by 3,250 to 375,250.
Several companies announced job cuts this week:
-- UAL Corp.'s United Airlines plans to eliminate about 950 pilot jobs beginning this summer in addition to a separate plan to cut 1,600 salaried positions.
-- The Boston Herald plans to lay off up to 160 workers as the daily newspaper outsources printing operations.
-- An IBM plant in Essex Junction, Vt., laid off 110 full-time employees and 70 long-term supplemental workers to help the company respond to changes in the world business climate.
-- The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press are offering buyouts to employees and shared business staff in a bid to cut at least 150 positions. The Detroit Media Partnership said it wants about 7 percent of its overall work force to take the buyouts or layoffs may follow.
-- Diversified manufacturer TriMas Corp. said it will trim an undisclosed number of management and corporate jobs in an attempt to cut costs.
