Work it: The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits dropped last week to the lowest level in four years, the Labor Department reports today, with weekly unemployment benefit applications falling 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 359,000. That’s the smallest number of applicants since April 2008. The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, declined to 365,000. The department also made its annual revisions to the past five years of unemployment benefit data. The revisions increased the number of unemployment benefit applicants in recent months. But the downward trend remains intact. When unemployment benefit applications drop consistently below 375,000, it usually signals that hiring is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate.
Billions or mere millions? Oracle and Google are digging in their heels as they prepare for an upcoming trial. Two of Silicon Valley’s most powerful companies, they haven’t agreed on much since Oracle filed its lawsuit against Google 19 months ago, and there appears to be little chance for a settlement before the trial is scheduled to begin April 16. The dispute hinges on Oracle’s allegations that Google’s widely used Android software for mobile devices infringes on copyrights and patents that Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems Inc. for $7.3 billion in 2010. The technology in question is Java, a programming language that has been around since the 1990s. Oracle Corp., a business software maker with $36 billion in annual revenue, is seeking hundreds of millions in damages. Google, which relies on its dominance of Internet search and advertising for most of its $38 billion in annual revenue, believes it won’t have to pay more than a few million dollars.
Deals on wheels: Online deals site LivingSocial is unveiling an Internet food-ordering service in 26 U.S. markets today, not including Baton Rouge. Hungry customers will be able to use it to order tacos, burgers or Pad Thai from participating restaurants over the Internet for pickup or delivery. Aptly called “Takeout & Delivery,” the service replaces LivingSocial’s instant-deals site, which offered real-time discounts with tight time constraints. LivingSocial says that service was a testing ground for its new, food-focused offering. Atlanta, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco are a few of the test markets getting the service today. The two largest, Los Angeles and New York, will go live at a later, unspecified date, along with the rest of the markets that LivingSocial serves.
Today’s poll question: Should the Legislature extend for four more years a bill barring the public from getting details of the state’s negotiations with companies on prospective economic development projects?
