The Weekly Layoff Report: From Banking To Backhoes

A slow but fairly steady economic recovery seems to be underway. Government figures this week showed inflation to have stayed negligible while the Federal Reserve has attempted to spur economic growth by holding down short-term interest rates at near zero, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its highest point since 2008. But that doesn't dispel the gloom brought on by high unemployment. The week ending March 13 saw a small dip in initial claims for unemployment insurance, from 462,000 to 457,000. The moving average decreased by 4,250 to 471,250. The trend seems to be improving, yet there remain more than 11 million recipients of unemployment benefits, 6 million of them on extended benefits.