(Source: Virginian - Pilot)
Jobs are vanishing at the fastest pace in more than five years with pink slips likely to keep stacking higher in the months ahead, an urgent signal the country might be careening toward a deep and painful recession.
Increasingly skittish employers dropped the ax even harder in September, chopping payrolls by 159,000 - more than double the cuts made just one month before. It was the ninth consecutive month of job losses. A staggering 760,000 jobs have disappeared so far this year. The Labor Department's report, released Friday, also showed that the nation's unemployment rate was 6.1 percent, up sharply from 4.7 percent a year ago. Over the past year, the number of unemployed people has risen by 2.2 million to 9.5 million.
Hours after learning that the nation's payrolls were continuing to shrink, the House voted Friday to extend unemployment benefits to those who have exhausted their current benefits. The House bill would provide seven additional weeks of payments to those who have exhausted their benefits.
brewers' plans
InBev, A-B target rising costs
Anheuser-Busch Cos. and InBev SA, which are combining in a $52 billion deal to be the world's largest brewer, said Friday they plan to focus more on costs to deal with rising commodity prices that have consumers spending more for a pint of beer.
InBev, the Belgian-based brewer taking over Anheuser-Busch, said in a trading update that it will accelerate cost-cutting efforts and hedge on commodities price exposure as the costs for beer ingredients barley and malt have risen. Anheuser-Busch, which has been raising prices and cutting hundreds of jobs to cope with higher costs for grain, labor, packaging and transportation, said U.S. beer volume rose in the third quarter, helped by the launch of Bud Light Lime.
false Web posting
Report said Jobs had heart attack
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the origin of a false report on a CNN citizen journalist Web site that Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs had a heart attack and was hospitalized.
The agency's enforcement unit is trying to determine whether the posting was intended to push down the stock price. The report is "not true," Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said. The shares fell as much as 5.4 percent after the post cited an anonymous source saying Jobs was rushed to the hospital after suffering a "major heart attack." The report has been removed.
Apple finished down $3.03, or 3 percent, to $97.07 in Nasdaq trading.
- From wire reports
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