ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 27, 1996 TAG: 9609270039
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
More workers applied for state unemployment benefits last week than analysts expected, a sign the economy may be losing steam.
First-time jobless claims rose 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 340,000 in the week ended Sept. 21 - the highest since July 13, when they hit 367,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.
The four-week average of claims, a less volatile indicator than the weekly data, rose to 328,750 last week from 326,250.
Still, ``this is a pretty strong labor market,'' said Sung Won Sohn, economist at Norwest Corp. in Minneapolis, adding that the economy needs only ``150,000 new jobs a month to keep the unemployment rate stable.''
Also Thursday, the Conference Board, a private business research organization in New York, said its help-wanted advertising index fell in August.
The index, based on the volume of job want-ads in 51 U.S. newspapers, fell to 82 from July's 83. The index was at 85 in June, and 83 a year ago.
``There are no signs that job growth will slow,'' Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein said. ``There's now a good chance the unemployment rate will fall below 5 percent sometime in the first half of 1997.''
- Bloomberg Business News and Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 32 linesby CNB