The weaker US dollar and concerns about the reliability of oil supplies helped send the price to an all time high of $US127.82 on Friday, before it eased in late trading to close at $US126.29, up 1.7% or $US2.17 a barrel in New York.
Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in April. Overall, 28 states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the month unemployment rate decreases, 14 states registered increases, and 8 states had no change, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported.
Almost one-third of the world's largest banks are planning to launch mobile banking services in the next 12 to 24 months, according to a February 2008 Loudhouse Research survey commissioned by Sybase 365.
The combination of rapidly approaching retirement and concerns about post-retirement financial security has not translated into more personal savings for most Americans, said Standard & Poor's. The report, titled "Older But Not Wiser: Why Americans Remain Dangerously Unprepared for Retirement," finds that the average American household savings rate remains near 0%.
Everyone is talking about the sluggish economy, housing slump, credit crisis, weak labor market and flagging consumer confidence, but new Yankelovich research shows just how quickly consumers' anxieties have intensified - and which issues are causing them the most concern.
IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told MEPs that while the worst of the financial market crisis itself was probably over, the impact on the real economy would continue at least for the rest of the year. He also spoke about the food price crisis and reform of financial market supervision.
The first estimate for the euro area (EA15) trade balance with the rest of the world in March 2008 gave a 2.3 bn euro deficit, compared with +7.5 bn in March 2007. The February 2008 balance was +0.8 bn, compared with -1.6 bn in February 2007. In March 2008 compared with February 2008, seasonally adjusted exports fell by 2.9% while imports remained stable.
On the last business day of March, there were 3.7 million job openings in the United States, and the job openings rate was 2.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported.
In the first quarter of 2008, there were 1,111 mass layoff events that resulted in the separation of 188,326 workers from their jobs for at least 31 days, according to preliminary figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
