Finance and Economic

Spartech Corp. reported a loss of $55.7 million for its fourth fiscal quarter, pressured by increased expenses and some charges.

President and CEO Vicki Holt said in a statement that the company’s quarterly results reflected disruptions from asset consolidations.

“Although I strongly believe the changes we have made to our manufacturing footprint will provide a more cost efficient infrastructure and position the company for long-term earnings growth, we have made mistakes in implementation that are being corrected and which have slowed our recovery,” she said.

Late Monday the plastic sheet and packaging maker reported that its loss amounted to $1.80 per share, for the period ended Oct. 30. That compares with net income of $8.2 million, or 26 cents per share, a year earlier.

Loss from continuing operations was $1.78 per share. Excluding restructuring costs, impairment charges and other items, earnings from continuing operations amounted to a penny per share.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters predicted net income of 6 cents per share. These estimates typically omit one-time items.

Total costs and expenses climbed to $332.7 million from $233.3 million.

Revenue rose 43 percent to $259.6 million from $242.6 million on higher prices and a slight increase in volume.

But the performance missed Wall Street’s $272.6 million.

Spartech’s annual loss was $50.4 million, or $1.63 per share. In the previous year the Clayton, Mo.-based company reported net income of $8.4 million, or 27 cents per share. Full-year revenue improved to $1.02 billion from $926.8 million.

Source

Gateway Commercial, Cushman & Wakefield Alliance represented:

Initial filings for unemployment insurance ticked up in the latest week, but continued to hover in the same range they have been since November, the government reported Thursday.

The number of first-time filers for unemployment benefits rose to 465,000 in the week ended Sept. 18, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The number was higher than economists’ forecasts of 450,000 for the week, according to consensus estimates by Briefing.com. It also marked an increase from the upwardly revised 453,000 initial claims filed in the previous week, which was shortened by Labor Day.

Both this week’s higher figure, and the upward revision to last week’s number disappointed investors, driving stock futures lower in pre-market trading.

"It’s a problematic level and really inconsistent with any meaningful job growth," said Mark Vitner, senior economist with Wells Fargo. "It raises the risk that the unemployment rate is going to move back toward 10% toward the end of the year."

Initial claims had declined in the two prior weeks, giving investors some hope for the job market. But overall, the weekly number has made little progress since November, hovering in the mid to upper 400,000s and even ticking slightly above 500,000 in mid-August.

As unemployment figures remain one of the defining measures of the recovery, economists say they’re looking for weekly initial claims to trend below the current range before they’re entirely optimistic about the economy.

"Companies are still focusing more on cutting costs than they are on growing their business, and that’s really what has not changed," Vitner said. "Businesses have been unwilling to take on any risks, and hiring a worker is taking on risk."

The four-week moving average of initial claims, calculated to smooth out volatility, totaled 463,250, down 3,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 466,500.

Continuing claims: The number of people continuing to file unemployment claims for a second week or more fell to 4,489,000 during the week ended Sept. 11, the most recent data available.

That’s down 48,000 from an upwardly revised 4,537,000 the week before. Economists were expecting continuing claims to edge down to 4,450,000.

The four-week moving average for ongoing claims rose by 2,500 to 4,537,000.

Earlier this month, the government’s closely watched monthly jobs report showed that the economy cut payrolls by 54,000 jobs in August. The national unemployment rate stood at 9.6%.

Did you get a factory job? Have you recently been hired in the manufacturing industry? Tell us about it and you could be featured in an upcoming story on CNNMoney.com. 

Source

As the nation celebrates Labor Day today, the U.S. Census Bureau counts 154 million people 16 years of age and older in the U.S. work force. Arizona reports a civilian labor force of 3.18 million, however, 10 percent of those people are currently unemployed as the recession’s effects linger.

Arizona’s service industries, including retail, utilities, health care, hospitality and professional services, account for the bulk of the state’s employment, 2.07 million jobs. Goods-producing industries, such as construction and manufacturing account for 275,300 jobs. Government and schools provide 372,900 jobs.

Labor Day was first observed as a parade of 10,000 workers on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York, organized by Peter McGuire, a Carpenters and Joiners Union secretary, the Bureau says. Congress established the first Monday in September as the federal holiday in 1894.

Here are a few other Labor Day stats provided by the Census Bureau:

• 78% of workers in private industry receive a paid vacation.
• 7.6 million U.S. workers who hold down more than one job.
• 10.1 million people in the U.S. are self-employed.
• 10.3 million work as independent contractors.
• 27% of workers 16 and older who work more than 40 hours a week.
• About 7 percent work 60 or more hours a week.
• 4.1 is the median number of years workers have been with their current employer. About 10 percent have been with their current employer for 20 or more years.
• There are 16.1 million labor union members nationwide.

Click here for the latest labor report from the Arizona Department of Commerce.

Click here for more stories on local labor and other economic statistics.

Click here for stories about job prospects in the Phoenix area.

Source

GE announced Friday it will raise the quarterly dividend by 20% and will resume its share buyback program at the end of the quarter.

The Fairbanks, Conn.-based company will pay a dividend of 12 cents per share, up from 10 cents, on Oct. 25 to investors on record when the market closes Sept. 20.

The board also said it will extend the company’s $15 billion share repurchase program through 2013. The plan, which was originally set to expire at the end of the year but was suspended in 2008, has $11.6 billion in remaining authorization.

"We are able to restore the GE dividend at a historical payout level for 2010, earlier than previously anticipated," said GE chief executive Jeff Immelt, "and to extend our share buyback program because of continued strong cash generation, recovery at GE Capital and solid underlying performance in our industrial businesses through the first half of 2010 Online payday loans."

Last week, GE reported quarterly earnings that jumped 16% from a year earlier to $3.1 billion, as its finance arm GE Capital showed signs of stabilization.

Shares of GE (GE, Fortune 500) were up 3.4% in afternoon trading.  

Source

A split-session job fair is being held Tuesday, June at Fairgrounds Gaming & Raceway in Hamburg.

The first session runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Available positions will be filled between July and August.

The facility, located on the fairgrounds in Hamburg, is operated by Delaware North Companies Inc faxless payday advance.

Source

British bank Standard Chartered is reportedly shifting thousands of its bankers to Apple Inc.'s iPhone from Research in Motion Ltd.'s Blackberry devices.

"It's a group-wide initiative involving wholesale and consumer banks globally," a spokeswoman for Standard Chartered told Reuters.

Bankers until now have for the most part been restricted to RIM's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry as the standard device issued by their firms, largely because of security concerns with Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) smartphone in the past.

"If more companies switch to the iPhone, this is of course bad news for RIM," Lu Chialin, an analyst at Macquarie Securities told Reuters. "However, it will take a long time for companies to do their own internal testing before deciding to change, so it will be a while before it has any effect on RIM."

A study by NPD Group last week said RIM was No. 1 in first quarter U.S. market share with 36 percent, with Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) No. 2 at 28 percent and Apple No. 3 at 21 percent.

Source

Iceland’s government will meet opposition lawmakers today, seeking consensus over a U.K. and Dutch proposal to amend the terms of a loan covering foreign depositor claims that led to a souring of international relations and stalled payments of the island’s bailout.

“I can’t comment on the specifics of the offer we received, although I can say that it’s worth consideration,” said Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson in a phone interview yesterday. Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir told broadcaster RUV on Feb. 20 the new offer significantly reduced the burden on Iceland.

One option is a floating interest rate instead of the 5.5 percent rate set when the $5.3 billion loan agreement was made in October and an interest-rate holiday may also be considered, according to government officials on Feb 19. They declined to be identified because the proposals have not been made public.

The new rate will make it cheaper for Iceland to repay a loan granted to cover deposits at failed Landsbanki Islands hf’s Icesave Internet bank. Iceland has been trying to restore relations with the British and the Dutch after President Olafur R. Grimsson blocked a bill intended to compensate the two countries. That rejection means the legislation will be put to a March 6 referendum, which most polls show Icelanders will reject.

It’s unlikely the government will try to introduce any new proposal to the parliament, unless it enjoys a wide political consensus, Skarphedinsson said yesterday.

“A proposal that has the backing of a strong majority in parliament is unlikely to be opposed by Iceland’s president,” he said.

‘Hang On’

After last night’s meeting, Sigurdardottir said she would “hang on to the hope of reaching an agreement, until something else is revealed.”

Standard & Poor’s has said it may follow Fitch Ratings decision, made when the bill was suspended, to cut Iceland’s credit grade to junk. Sigurdardottir previously signaled her government wanted to renegotiate the bill before it’s put to a vote.

The suspension of the Icesave bill, named after the high- yielding Internet accounts offered by failed Landsbanki, has put in question the continuation of Iceland’s $4.6 billion International Monetary Fund-led loan.

While the IMF has said continued disbursement of its $2.1 billion portion of the emergency loan isn’t linked to Icesave, the fund can’t provide installments without financing from contributing nations. Nordic countries that are providing $2.5 billion have indicated they want Icesave resolved before they resume payment.

Source

Uncertainly about the future prospects for jobs in America got even foggier Wednesday as two reports on job cuts revealed conflicting results.

A report from Automatic Data Processing, a firm that collects monthly payroll data, suggested that the pace of job cuts may be slowing. But a separate report from Challenger, which predicts job cuts based on forward-looking announcements from companies, said planned cuts hit a 5-month high in January.

ADP (ADP, Fortune 500) said private-sector employers cut 22,000 jobs in January, marking the smallest decline since February of 2008. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a loss of 30,000 jobs in January.

The number of cuts in December was revised down to 61,000 from the previously reported 84,000.

"We aren’t doing a whole lot of hiring yet, but I think you can safely say the firing is starting to stop," said John Canally, an economist at LPL Financial. "And this shows that we’re close to adding more jobs."

The service sector reported an increase of 38,000 jobs in January, marking the second consecutive month of job growth for that sector following a 21-month decline.

The figure was offset by a loss of 60,000 in the goods-producing sector and a drop of 25,000 manufacturing jobs, which marked its lowest level since January, 2008.

In a separate report Wednesday, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc, said planned job cuts had accelerated in January.

"[The Challenger report] uses a different metric," said Canally. "The job cut announcements aren’t actual layoffs, they are plans in place to cut jobs in the future, but not all of those end up being lost — some are unfilled positions and some are added back later."

Challenger said employers announced 71,482 layoffs in January, reversing what had been a steady decline in layoff announcements.

January’s figure is up 59% from December 2009, when layoffs fell to a 24-month low of 45,094. But it was a sharp drop from the 241,749 cuts announced a year ago.

"It is not uncommon to see a surge in job-cut announcements to begin the year," said Challenger CEO John Challenger. "Companies are making adjustments based on the previous year’s results and the outlook for the year ahead.

The retail and telecom sectors were the hardest hit in January, with 16,737 and 14,010 job cuts, respectively. Last month Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) said it would shed 11,200 positions at its Sam’s Clubs Warehouse outlets, and Verizon Communications (VZ, Fortune 500), announced 13,000 layoffs.

"The beginning of the year is particularly rough on retail workers, as [their] employers enter one of the slower sales periods of the year," Challenger said.

Despite the monthly decline, Canally said the report signals future job growth.

"This is still pretty much a decade-low for job cut announcements, which shows that the economy is probably about to turn around," said Canally. "The outlook is getting clearer, so I wouldn’t be too concerned about this bump in January."

Wednesday’s reports precede the closely watched monthly jobs report from the Labor Department due Friday. That’s expected to show employment levels essentially unchanged in January, according to a consensus of economists polled by Briefing.com, compared to a loss of 85,000 jobs in December.

The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 10%. 

Source

Federal subsidies for COBRA insurance coverage for involuntary terminated workers have been extended to 15 months – a move hailed by North Carolina’s insurance commissioner.

The subsidy, part of the federal stimulus plan, pays for 65 percent of the COBRA and mini-COBRA premiums for workers laid off from their jobs between Sept. 1, 2008 and Feb. 28, 2010. Previously, the subsidy ran out after nine months, after which the unemployed would have to pay the full COBRA premium.

“The COBRA subsidy extension is great news for North Carolinians who have been laid off and couldn’t continue their health insurance because of the often impossibly expensive premiums,” said state Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin. “Many citizens in our state were approaching the subsidy’s original cutoff date and just didn’t know how they could pay for the full coverage premiums – or worse, they were forced to cancel their coverage once the subsidy ran out. I’m so pleased that these folks will have the opportunity to maintain their coverage.”

The extension applies to those who are currently receiving the subsidies and to those who have already exhausted their initial nine months of subsidies business card templates. Unemployed workers who are eligible for the subsidies will be notified by their former employers’ insurance provider.

Workers who dropped COBRA after the subsidies ran out because they could not afford the full premiums re-enroll and receive the extended subsidy. Workers who have been paying the full premium since the subsidies ran out should contact their plan administrator or sponsor about receiving future credits or reimbursements for their past payments.

COBRA allows many workers and their families to continue receiving health insurnace coverage that had been provided through their former employer. However, the worker is responsible for paying up to 102 percent of the total cost of the insurance, much of which may have been paid for by the employer.

Mini-COBRA is provided for workers of companies with fewer than 20 employees.

Individuals with questions about COBRA benefits should contact the N.C. Department of Insurance at (800) 546-5664 or go online to www.dol.gov/cobra.

Source