Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

Friday 15 September 2017 BUSINESS
A24

US jobless benefit applications fell by 14,000 last week

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER Thursday. The number of Americans plications.The Labor De- ated in the spring with the
AP Economics Writer The previous week’s in- receiving unemployment partment said that claims economy, as measured by
WASHINGTON (AP) — crease of 62,000 had benefits dropped by 7,000 in Texas and Louisiana had the gross domestic prod-
The number of people pushed claims to the high- to 1.94 million, 9.1 percent been impacted last week uct, expanding at an an-
seeking unemployment est level in two years. lower than a year ago. by Harvey, while benefit nual rate of 3 percent,
benefits declined slightly The less volatile four-week THE TAKEAWAY: Economists applications in Puerto Rico more than double the 1.2
last week but still remained average for claims rose to closely watch unemploy- were affected by Hurri- percent GDP growth rate
elevated as hurricane dis- 263,250 last week, the high- ment claims, which serve cane Irma. Claims in Florida in the first quarter.Hiring
ruptions impacted layoffs est level in a year.Applica- as a proxy for layoffs. dipped slightly last week, slowed in August, when
for a second week. tions from Texas, recover- Even with recent increases, but Irma did not hit the U.S. employers added 150,000
THE NUMBERS: Applications ing from Hurricane Harvey, claims remain at levels sig- mainland until Sunday.Even jobs, below last year’s av-
for jobless benefits dropped totaled 51,988 last week, nifying a strong labor mar- with the disruptions from the erage monthly gain but still
by 14,000 to a seasonally down by 11,800 from the ket.Natural disasters can storm, new weekly claims enough to lower the unem-
adjusted 284,000 last week previous week, but still far frequently cause spikes in so far have remained be- ployment rate over time.
after surging to 298,000 above the normal range of benefit claims. Superstorm low 300,000 for the longest Unemployment in August
the previous week, the La- around 12,000 applications Sandy in 2012 drove the stretch going back to 1970. stood at 4.4 percent, near
bor Department reported filed weekly in Texas. last huge increase in ap- Economic growth acceler- a 16-year low.q
Confusion hits consumer market over US ban of Kaspersky

ties between unnamed date,” Weaver wrote this
Kaspersky officials and the summer.
Kremlin and Russian intel- Kaspersky products ac-
ligence services. The de- counted for about 5.5 per-
partment also noted that cent of anti-malware soft-
Russian law might compel ware products worldwide,
Kaspersky to assist the gov- according to research firm
ernment in espionage. Statista.
Kaspersky has denied any Another expert, though,
unethical ties with Russia suggested that consum-
or any government. It said ers should also uninstall
Wednesday that its prod- Kaspersky software to
ucts have been sold at Best avoid any potential risks.
Buy for a decade. Kasper- Michael Sulmeyer, director
sky software is widely used of a cybersecurity program
by consumers in both free at Harvard, noted that an-
and paid versions, raising tivirus software has deep
the question of whether access to one’s computer
those users should follow and network.
the U.S. government’s lead. “Voluntarily introducing this
Nicholas Weaver, a com- kind of Russian software in
puter security researcher at a geopolitical landscape
This Monday, Jan. 30, 2017 photo shows a sign above the headquarters of Kaspersky Lab in Mos- the University of California, where the U.S.-Russia rela-
cow. Worries rippled through the consumer market for antivirus software after the U.S. government Berkeley, called the U.S. tionship is not good at all,
banned federal agencies from using Kaspersky Lab software on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017. Best government decision “pru- I think would be assuming
Buy said it will no longer sell software made by the Russian company, although one security re- dent;” he had argued for too much risk,” he said.
searcher said most consumers don’t need to be alarmed.
(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) such a step in July . But he “There are plenty of alter-
added by email that “for natives out there.”
By JOSEPH PISANI government banned fed- pany, although one secu- most everybody else, the Sulmeyer also said retailers
RYAN NAKASHIMA eral agencies from using rity researcher said most software is fine.” should follow Best Buy Co.’s
AP Business Writers Kaspersky Labs software consumers don’t need to The biggest risk to U.S. gov- lead and stop selling the
NEW YORK (AP) — Worries on Wednesday. Best Buy be alarmed. ernment computers is if software.Office Depot Inc.
rippled through the con- and Office Depot said they The U.S. Department of Moscow-based Kaspersky announced Thursday that
sumer market for antivi- will no longer sell software Homeland Security cited is subject to “government- it will stop selling the soft-
rus software after the U.S. made by the Russian com- concerns about possible mandated malicious up- ware. q
Federal Trade Commission investigating Equifax breach

By KEN SWEET it was opening an inves- necessary. that keep track of the fi- lic interest and the poten-
MICHAEL LIEDTKE tigation into how Equifax Equifax disclosed last week nancial affairs of U.S. con- tial impact of this matter, I
AP Business Writers got hacked and tens of that hackers were able sumers in order help banks can confirm that FTC staff
NEW YORK (AP) — The Fed- million Americans’ personal to access the personal in- make decisions on lending, is investigating the Equi-
eral Trade Commission has information was either ac- formation of 143 million tracking credit card bal- fax data breach,” Peter
become the latest author- cessed or stolen. Americans, including criti- ances to payment history Kaplan, acting director of
ity to announce an inves- Typically the FTC does not cal things like Social Secu- to court judgments. The public affairs at the FTC,
tigation into the massive disclose who it is investigat- rity numbers, birthdates, other two main credit bu- said in a statement.
security breach at credit ing, but the agency said addresses and full legal reaus are TransUnion and The FTC is not the only
agency Equifax. the high amount of atten- names. Equifax is one of Experian. Washington authority look-
The FTC said Thursday that tion in this case made it three major credit bureaus “In light of the intense pub- ing into the breach. q