Washington, May 17 (Bloomberg) -- The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits probably rose last week as slower economic growth led businesses to cut payrolls, economists said in advance of data being released today. The expected increase of 11,000 initial jobless claims would bring the level to 395,000 in the week ended May 12, based on the median of 20 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. Claims reached a five-year high of 425,000 two weeks earlier. The average weekly level of claims this year is the highest since 1992, a sign companies are following through on job reductions announced months ago. ``The labor market will continue to soften due to sagging economic activity,'' said Kathleen Bostjancic, an economist at Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York. The Labor Department is scheduled to release its statistics at 8:30 a.m. Washington time. The report is based on information provided by state and territorial governments. Manufacturing layoffs have contributed to the rise in claims this year. A report today from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia is likely to show that its regional manufacturing index weakened in May, falling to minus 7.8 from minus 7.2 during April. The index, which tracks orders, production, employment and other gauges of manufacturing in eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware, is at ``historically depressed levels,'' said analysts at MMS International in Belmont, California. The Philadelphia Fed is scheduled to release its report at 10 a.m. Washington time. The Conference Board is likely to report the index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of future growth, increased 0.1 percent in April after falling 0.3 percent the month before, analysts said. The New York-based research organization will release the report at 10 a.m. Washington time.
Economic Growth
America's economy grew at a 2.9 percent annual pace between July of last year and March, the slowest since a 2.4 annualized rate of increase for the nine months ending March 1996. This year, initial jobless claims have averaged 367,000. That's up from the weekly average of 302,800 last year and the most since an average of 407,800 for 1992, according to Labor Department figures. The economy lost more jobs in April than at any time in the last decade and the unemployment rate climbed to 4.5 percent, the highest in 2 1/2 years, the Labor Department reported two weeks ago. Payrolls plunged 223,000 during the month after declining 53,000 in March. Factory employment fell for the ninth consecutive month and the number of workers at service companies declined for the first time since July 2000. Dallas-based Pillowtex Corp., the largest maker of pillows, blankets and down comforters in North America, is among those eliminating workers. The company this week said it planned to fire 780 people and close plants in Kannapolis, North Carolina, and Columbus, Georgia, as part of a bankruptcy restructuring. Hyperion Solutions Corp., a maker of data-analysis software, said it would fire as much as 15 percent of its workers to trim costs. Hyperion had 2,651 employees as of March 31, the Sunnyvale, California, company said in a news release.