Utah's jobless claims falling

Utah's jobless claims falling
Recession » Claims also dropped nationally, the first time in 20 weeks.

Tribune Staff And Wire Services

Updated:06/04/2009 10:13:38 PM MDT

The number of Utahns making claims for unemployment benefits has been falling since January, indicating the recession in Utah may be bottoming out.

About 2,700 Utahns filed paperwork for unemployment benefits last week. While that's about three times the number from a year ago, it's down substantially from the 5,000 or so who filed in January. Since January, the number of claims have been falling, said Mark Knold, senior economist at the Department of Workforce Services.

"I think the worst of the job losses, the layoffs and such, we're past it," Knold said Thursday.

He cautioned that there are still more layoffs to come but likely declining from the past three or four months.

Total unemployment benefits paid out -- a measure of the number of Utahns on jobless rolls -- was about 400 percent more than a year ago, the economist said.

Nationally, the number of people on the unemployment insurance rolls fell slightly for the first time in 20 weeks, while the tally of new jobless claims also dipped, the federal government said Thursday.

The Labor Department report provides a glimmer of good news for job seekers, though both drops were small and the figures remain significantly above the levels associated with a healthy economy. The job market likely will remain weak well into next year, according to estimates from government and private economists.

The department also said U.S. workers were more productive in the first quarter than previously estimated, as rapid layoffs forced companies to make do with fewer employees.

The tally of first-time claims for jobless benefits declined to a seasonally adjusted 621,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 625,000, nearly matching analysts' expectations.

The total jobless benefit rolls fell by 15,000 to 6.7 million, the first drop since early January. Continuing claims had set record highs every week since the week ending Jan. 24. The continuing claims data lag initial claims by one week.

Productivity, the amount of output per hour worked, rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.6 percent in the January-March period, the department said, double the government's estimate last month.

The increase came despite a steep drop in output, because companies laid off employees and cut hours worked at an even faster pace.