Jobs linked to Obama rescue plan: Businesses that received federal contracts under the economic stimulus are reporting more than 30,000 jobs saved or created in the first months of the program. Numbers released by a government watchdog today offer the first hard data on the effect of the stimulus. These numbers only reflect jobs linked to federal contracts, such as construction at military bases or within national parks. That’s a tiny fraction of the $787 billion stimulus. Broader data on local spending won’t be available until late this month. The job tally is part of the largest-ever attempt to measure the success of a government program in real time.
Inflation remains muted: The number of newly laid-off U.S. workers filing claims for unemployment insurance has fallen to the lowest level since early January, a sign the labor market is slowly improving. And consumer price pressures remained mild in September as Americans slowly regain their appetite to shop amid a fledgling economic recovery. The Labor Department said today that first-time claims for jobless benefits dropped to a seasonally adjusted 514,000 from an upwardly revised 524,000 the previous week. The fifth decline in six weeks was below Wall Street economists’ forecasts of 525,000, according to Thomson Reuters. The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, fell for the sixth straight time to 531,500. That’s the lowest since January and about 105,000 below the peak reached in early April.
Social Security makes it official: There will be no cost of living increase for more than 50 million Social Security recipients next year, the first year without a raise since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975, the government announced today. Blame falling consumer prices. By law, cost of living adjustments are pegged to inflation, which is negative this year because of lower energy costs. Social Security payments do not go down, even when prices drop. The Obama administration, meanwhile, is pursuing a different way to boost recipients’ income. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama called for a second round of $250 stimulus payments for seniors, veterans, retired railroad workers and people with disabilities.
