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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The ongoing recovery in the nation’s financial service sector still has not reached the rest of the economy, causing the number of Americans filing first time jobless claims to rise to 410,000 for the week ending Feb. 12.

That was an increase of 25,000 from the previous week’s revised 385,000 jobless workers who filed initial claims for unemployment compensation insurance, the United States Department of Labor said Thursday.

Some analysts had expected jobless claims to remain below the 400,000 mark. Economists say that if initial jobless claims fall below 400,000 weekly and stay there for a prolonged period that would signal the general economy had begun a recovery.

However, for now, it is the financial services sector of the economy, including the banks that started the economic crisis, that are recovering. The rest of the nation’s economy lags behind, meaning it is still a jobless recovery.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said Thursday that continued high unemployment coupled with low inflation meant that the Fed had missed both of its policy objectives and that the nation’s economy still needed help and time to dig its way out of the hole created by the recession.

In the meantime, the percentage of jobless workers covered by the unemployment compensation insurance program remained unchanged at 3.1 percent for the week ending Feb. 5 compared to the previous week, the latest dates for which that data is available.

A total of 9,250,156 people claimed benefits in all jobless programs for the week ending Jan. 29, the latest week for which such data is available.

Extended jobless benefits were still available in 35 states and the District of Columbia during the week ending Jan. 29. Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Feb. 5 were in Michigan (+2,693), North Carolina (+1,222), New Jersey (+877), Maryland (+527) and Pennsylvania (+475).

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The United States reiterated its focus on “visa fraud” in the ongoing investigation into Tri-Valley University while the subject was highlighted during high-level visits from Indian officials to the U.S.

The latest efforts of Sushmita Thomas, Indian Consul General in San Francisco, on Wednesday resulted in the US Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) de-tagging three more Indian students out of total 18, bringing the number to five.

Noting that ICE has returned the passport of these three students along with two others from whom radio tags were removed last week, Thomas elaborated that the students were taken to ICE by two immigration attorneys.

Both of the attorneys, Kalpana Peddibhotla and Manpreet Gahra, are from the South Asian Bar Association, which is cooperating with the Consulate to provide free legal aid for the Tri Valley students.

There has been a flurry of diplomatic activities over the last weeks, as more than 1,500 students of Indian origin await results of the ongoing investigation by the Department of Homeland Security into the murky waters of Tri-Valley University.

Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao met with U.S. Undersecretary for political affairs William Burn and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week.

Commenting on the meetings, Heide Bronke Fulton, director of the State Department’s Office of Press Relations, told All Headline News, “During these discussions the issue of Tri-Valley University was raised. This is the issue that the United States government takes very seriously. Our Department of Homeland Security is leading the investigation into the situation and has established a website to assist all students who are affected by the issue of fraud that has risen.”

Asked to sum up her advise to the affected students, Indian Foreign Secretary Rao told AHN, “To stay in touch with the embassy and the consulates —– to reach out to the embassy and the consulates and not to be afraid to reach out to embassy and consulates —- we are there to help you to try to seek a solution to your problems and to their parents back home similar message —- that we would do our best to help them and to take up their case with the US authorities —- we are there to help Indian citizens —- that is the primary responsibility and primary work of any diplomatic establishment abroad.”

Addressing journalists on Wednesday, PJ Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said, “We will work as cooperatively as we can with the Indian government as we move ahead here, but it’s hard to know exactly what is possible because the matter is still under investigation.”

Commenting on the phone conversation between Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the weekend, Crowley said, “India has made the point, and we understand it fully, that students caught up in this, the risk is that they’ll lose a year of schooling and go through great inconvenience as this matter is being investigated. We do understand that and we have pledged our cooperation.”

During the State Department briefing Crowley said, “But we do recognize that there’s – are strong indications of visa fraud, and we don’t know who is involved, we don’t know how they got involved, but this has to be investigated fully, and we will do that.”

Over the weekend visiting Indian minister Krishna told journalists in New York, “We would like to assure that we have taken attempt with the authorities in the United States at the highest level and we have been assured that the students in the Tri-Valley – so called university will be dealt in all fairness – just not legalistically but taking into on the basis of humanitarian situations.”

“Our consul general in San Francisco has already provided legal assistance to some of these affected students,” added Krishna.

Indian Consul General Thomas told AHN, “We have been speaking to ICE repeatedly regularly – in fact we have been speaking to their principal chief investigator in this case and we have finally got them to agree that they would be dealing with this in a very humanitarian manner – not just a legalistical manner – and that in the cases where they are convinced that the students were not guilty – they would be willing to help them -either leave for India and then come back without prejudice or allow them to transfer to other universities and if their transfers get accepted or allow them a reinstatement of their visas if the universities from where they originally transferred accept them back.”

Calling the process “a long haul,” Thomas said, “I feel definitely it would be much longer than that–six to seven months or eight months but definitely there is a lot of hope and a lot of student whom we can possibly help to reinstate themselves and to get back to their studies.”

Over the weekend, a group of 25 students along with Mohan Nannapaneni, secretary of the Telgu Association of North American (TANA), met with Krishna to apprise him of the situation.

After the meeting, Nannapaneni told AHN, “We had a very lengthy meeting. The foreign affairs minister and the external affairs secretary listened to our concerns very carefully and a lot of students came and they gave a very clear description of their problems that they are going through.”

“Until we met the minister they didn’t even have an idea what exactly was going on here and the ministry and the government – they did not understand the urgency of this issue – now at least we have a feeling that they know the urgency of the issue and they are going to work quickly on it,” hoped Nannapaneni.

Praising TANA for supporting the students in distress, the Indian Consul General urged other community organizations to come forward with their resources to help these students.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke says the unemployment rate in the United States will not drop to pre-financial crisis levels for a number of years.

Bernanke made that statement Thursday in answer to questions about the economy from the Congressional Committee on the Budget.

In addition, he said that it was impossible to consider the economic recovery to be established until there is a strong and sustained creation of jobs.

The U.S. economy only created 36,000 net jobs in January. That was not sufficient to cover population growth and did little to help the millions of people who lost their jobs during the recession or in its aftermath. For example, the economy needs to create from 120,000 to 200,000 jobs monthly just to absorb new workers entering the labor force for the first time.

Moreover, Bernanke said that the long-term challenges presented by the high federal deficit were “daunting” and that the present high deficit was “unsustainable.”

The total government debt is now 60 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and forecast to rise to 150 percent of GDP by 2030. The total federal budget deficit is 9 percent of current GDP.

By contrast, European Union nations try to keep budget deficits to 3 percent of GDP.

GDP is the total amount of goods and services consumed in the nation. The budget deficit is the amount the government spends each year in excess of its income, expressed as a percentage of the national GDP.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – U.S. nonfarm employment figures rose slightly, far less than the pundits had predicted but the government cited severe weather as affecting construction payrolls while the White House welcomed the slight dip in unemployment.

Posting on the White House blog, Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) stated, “The 0.8 percentage point decline in the unemployment rate over the past two months is a welcome development; however, the rate remains unacceptably high.”

“Severe weather in some parts of the country may have impacted employment and hours in some industries,” Goolsbee said.

Speaking on the eve of the release on Thursday, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said that it will be several years before unemployment returns to more normal levels.

Bernanke told his audience at a luncheon at the National Press Club that consumer spending and business investment are signs that a “self sustaining recovery…may be taking hold,” predicting, “a more rapid pace of economic recovery in 2011 than we saw last year.”

The figures are of paramount importance to the Federal Reserve policy, which includes $600 billion of long-term asset buying that begun in November.

Bernanke noted that the purchase is supporting the economy and cited both rises in stock market indices and basic economic as evidence.

The modest job gains delivered for January did not match other data for the month, which had suggested employment growth was picking up, raising hopes that the manufacturing-driven recovery was now spreading to other sectors of the economy.

Goolsbee, however, cautioned against reading “too much into any one monthly report,” as “The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and employment estimates are subject to substantial revision.”

He noted, “The overall trajectory of the economy has improved dramatically over the past two years, but there will surely be bumps in the road ahead.”

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – First time claims for unemployment compensation payments fell last week to 415,000, a decrease of 42,000 from the 457,000 initial claims filed during the week ending Jan. 22, U.S. Department of Labor officials announced Thursday.

It was better than some economists expected. It wasn’t enough to put a dent in the nation’s unemployment rate, although the figures are at least moving in the right direction. However, the percentage of unemployed workers covered by the unemployment compensation program is also edging downward.

Advance seasonally adjusted figures for Jan. 22, the latest week for which such statistics are available, showed that the insured unemployment rate was 3.1 percent, down by 0.1 percentage point from the 3.2 percent for the previous week.

The total number of people claiming jobless benefits in all programs was 9,298,859 during the week ending Jan. 15, the latest week for which those statistics are available.

Unemployment rates were still high enough in 35 states and the District of Columbia that jobless workers there qualified for extended benefits during the week of Jan. 15.

Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

DOL officials said the highest insured unemployment rates by percentage in the week ending Jan. 15 were in:

• Alaska, 7.1 percent
• Montana, 5.5 percent
• Pennsylvania, 5.4 percent
• Idaho, 5.3 percent
• Oregon, 5.3 percent
• Wisconsin, 5.3 percent
• Puerto Rico, 5.2 percent
• Illinois, 4.9 percent
• Rhode Island, 4.8 percent
• Connecticut, 4.7 percent.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama on Friday was heading to Schenectady, NY, to visit General Electric’s downtown plant where he was expected to announce the appointment of Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO and chairman of GE, as chair of the new President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

The council is set to replace the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, or PERAB, whose mandate expires Feb. 6, after its navigator, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, recently announced his decision to step down.

Air Force One carrying Obama and his entourage is scheduled to land at 12:10 p.m. and Obama is expected to speak at the GE plant shortly after 1 p.m. The presidential team leaves around 2 p.m.

With a brief plant tour at GE, Obama would complete his second visit to the Capital Region since his 2008 election. Obama had spoken about technology during a 2009 visit to Hudson Valley Community College.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – First time jobless claims fell by a modest 37,000 to 404,000 for the week ending Jan. 15, according figures released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

That drop in initial claims for unemployment compensation payments was slightly better than analysts expected and continues a trend downward in new unemployment claims.

However, not every worker who loses a job is covered by jobless benefits. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate remained at 3.1 percent for the week ending Jan. 8, the latest week such data is available, according to the DOL.

Observers say that the number of new jobless claims must fall below 400,000 and stay there before there will be much improvement in the jobs picture. Unemployment remains at 9.8 percent.

The economy is still not creating enough jobs to provide employment for the 120,000 to 200,000 new workers who enter the U.S. labor force every month. Officials say that it could take 10 years to create enough jobs to absorb the people who have lost their job since the beginning of the recession.

Here are some other unemployment facts from the DOL for the latest weeks available:

• The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 8 were in New York (+24,363), California (+17,536), North Carolina (+16,873), Texas (+13,828), and Illinois (+11,211), while the largest decreases were in Oregon (-9,579), Iowa (-3,122), Michigan (-3,101), Wisconsin (-2,029) and Kentucky (-1,006).
• The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Jan. 1 were in Alaska (7.2 percent), Puerto Rico (6.1 percent), Idaho (5.6 percent), Oregon (5.6 percent), Wisconsin (5.6 percent), Pennsylvania (5.4 percent), Montana (5.1 percent), Connecticut (5.0 percent), Rhode Island (4.9 percent), Illinois (4.7 percent) and New Jersey (4.7 percent).
• Extended unemployment compensation benefits for the week ending Jan. 1 were still available in 35 states and the District of Columbia, which was unchanged from the week before. Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – In an effort to curb the growing child obesity epidemic, new federal guidelines proposed Thursday focus on making school lunches healthier.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued the new guidelines marking the first such changes in 15 years. They include cutting salt and fat while adding more fruits and vegetables to school cafeteria choices.

The new guidelines for the nation’s schools and school age children call for more whole grains and the use of low- or nonfat milk. In addition, the amount of starch is limited to one cup of starchy vegetables a week, meaning cafeteria favorite French fries would only be on the menu once a week.

The move will also have a financial impact.

“If we don’t contain obesity in this country, it’s going to eat us alive in terms of health-care costs,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

According to 2008 findings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 17 percent of children and adolescents 2 to 19 years old are obese.

The announcement follows President Barack Obama signing into law a few weeks ago a child nutrition bill that will help schools pay for healthier foods, which are usually more expensive.

That new law also will extend similar nutrition standards to some government subsidized schools. The measures will also include “a la carte” foods on the lunch line and snacks in vending machines.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday called on the Senate Budget Committee to come up with a deficit reduction plan, saying he expected moderately more economic recovery in 2011 than in 2010, but not at a rate sufficient to make much of a dent in the unemployment rate.

He told the committee he foresees an unemployment rate of around 8 percent in two years and said it will take an additional four or five years beyond that to get the labor market back to normal. Bernanke also said he was not concerned about consumer inflation, as it has declined each year since the recession; however, wages have also declined.

Bernanke told senators that some sort of deficit reduction plan was necessary to reassure investors in order to boost the financial markets.

In addition, Bernanke told the committee members that a stable job market was the central bank’s first priority. He explained that coming up with a credible plan to do something to stabilize the job market now was essential to moving forward. Bernanke explained that because the economic recovery was still so fragile that it was not enough to say they were not doing anything now because of the recession and that they would do something later.

Bernanke told the committee that right now they needed to take into account the low rate of economic activity.

About two-thirds of the nation’s economy is dependent on consumer spending. However, with so many consumers out of work, fewer people have paychecks to spend. The percentage of Americans who have jobs fell again in December. According to a report released Friday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 64.3 percent of working-age Americans had either a part- or full-time job in December.

Bernanke told the committee that the persistently high rate of unemployment is damping household income and confidence and that it could threaten the recovery’s strength and sustainability.

The Fed chair also defended his controversial $600 billion bond buying plan, saying it would not cost taxpayers in the end. He said the quantitative easing programs would yield excess profits to the Fed of $125 billion that it will remit to the Treasury.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Initial jobless claims rose by 18,000 to 409,000 during the week ending Jan. 1, according to the Labor Department’s weekly report released Thursday.

The increase of 18,000 in new unemployment compensation claims followed a drop in initial claims the week before that resulted in new jobless claims falling below the 400,000 mark for the first time since July 2008.

However, analysts say that claims for unemployment compensation insurance benefits above 400,000 per week signal the economy is still weak.

The four-week moving average was 410,750, which was a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 414,250 first time jobless claims, the DOL said.

Some 3.3 percent of unemployed people were covered by unemployment compensation insurance for the week ending Dec. 25, which was unchanged from the previous week.

In addition, the advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Dec. 25 was 4,103,000, which was a decrease of 47,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 4,150,000, according to the DOL. The four-week moving average decreased by 2,750 from the week before; it dropped from 4,122,500 to a revised average of 4,125,250.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending Dec. 18 was 8,765,952.

Extended benefits continued to be available in 35 states and the District of Columbia during the week ending Dec. 18. Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

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