New claims for US jobless benefits fell for the first time in three weeks, the government said Thursday amid persistent concerns that unemployment may dampen recovery.

Claims fell to 457,000 in the week ending June 19, a decrease of 19,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 476,000, the Labor Department said.

Most economists had expected claims to fall to 460,000.

Once again, another story with one missing fact. Congress has not extended unemployment benefits, so those people who are on unemployment cannot get it if they have reached the end of their existing tier. In other words, many people cannot get it so they stopped filing. Oops!

Mortgage rates fell this week to the lowest level on records dating to 1971, giving consumers added incentive to lock in low payments for home purchases and refinanced loans.

The average rate for 30-year fixed loans sank to 4.69 percent, from 4.75 percent last week, mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday.

Of course they fail to mention that home sales also dropped 33%. Oops.

The world’s tallest skyscraper has unexpectedly closed to the public a month after its lavish opening, disappointing tourists headed for the observation deck and casting doubt over plans to welcome its first permanent occupants in the coming weeks.

Electrical problems are at least partly to blame for the closure of the Burj Khalifa’s viewing platform — the only part of the half-mile high tower open yet. But a lack of information from the spire’s owner left it unclear whether the rest of the largely empty building — including dozens of elevators meant to whisk visitors to the tower’s more than 160 floors — was affected by the shutdown.

Bigger is not always better.

Is Disney World still one of the happiest places on earth? Probably not for some.

The Walt Disney Co.’s domestic theme parks eliminated 1,900 jobs during the past six weeks — including 1,400 in Florida — the company acknowledged Friday.

The nationwide job losses included approximately 1,150 layoffs, 50 buyouts and the elimination of 700 open positions, the company said. The Florida cuts included 900 layoffs and buyouts and 500 vacant jobs that will go unfilled.

How does this work anyway?

Reports of deep job cuts at International Business Machines (IBM) come at a potentially delicate time for the company—just as it is hoping to secure money from the federal stimulus package. The company will lay off as many as 5,000 U.S. workers in its Global Business Services unit, transferring some of the work they performed to India.

IBM spokesman Mike Fay declined to confirm or to comment on any job-cut plans, which were reported on Mar. 25 by The Wall Street Journal (NWS) and Bloomberg News. The cuts will affect mainly information technology and consulting work in such areas as customer relations management and supply chain management, says Lee Conrad, national coordinator of Alliance@IBM, a group that is seeking union representation at IBM and is allied with the Communications Workers of America Local 1701.

Doesn’t this happen all the time? I mean, not on this scale, but don’t companies make cutbacks in areas that are not as profitable so they can focus on the areas that are? I don’t like the whole outsourcing to India issue at all.

I don’t get it. What did Ford offer the union in exchange for this?

Ford Motor Co (F.N) expects operating savings of $500 million per year from an agreement with the United Auto Workers that also will make its labor costs competitive with Japanese rivals, the company said on Wednesday.

The agreement trims average wages and benefits for UAW hourly workers to about $55 per hour this year, from more than $70 per hour when Ford was negotiating a watershed contract with the union two years ago.

That figure is expected to drop to about $50 per hour by 2011, or roughly on a par with what Japanese automakers led by Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) will be paying their non-union U.S. factory workers, Ford said.

There has to be more to this story.

Home Depot announced Monday it’s laying off 7,000 employees and said it will close all of company’s EXPO stores because of poor performance.

“Over the next two months, the Company will be closing 34 EXPO Design Center stores, five YardBIRDS stores, two Design Center stores and a bath remodeling business known as HD Bath, with seven locations,” company officials said in a press release.

Did anyone shop at those EXPO stores? Okay, I meant to ask, did they ever purchase anything at those stores? Aren’t the people rich enough to shop at that store having their contractors bring the ideas to them at home anyway? I never understood the concept of those stores.

The national jobless rate is 7.2%? Ouch.

An early relief rally following the news that payrolls in the world’s largest economy declined by a smaller than anticipated 524,000 in December soon dissipated as investors focused on the rise in the unemployment rate to a 16-year high of 7.2 percent from 6.8 percent in the previous month. Analysts had expected unemployment to hit 7 percent in December.

It’s a proven fact. Bailouts do not save jobs.

Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf, whose company acquired Wachovia Corp, said on Wednesday that minimizing job losses will be a priority but added that some cuts would begin this year.

Stumpf told the Charlotte Observer newspaper that he does not know how many jobs will be lost in the merger and did not provide a specific timeframe for the start of layoffs.

Of course, the government wasn’t thinking about jobs when they started handing out money, so I guess this is a non-issue right?

Is this a sign that Microsoft didn’t do as well as they thought they were going to this past year?

Rumors about substantial cutbacks at Microsoft have been circulating for at least two months, but have not been confirmed by credible sources. The rumors were reignited by Fudzilla, which claims that the axe will fall on January 15 and affect about 15,000 employees.

Such a cutback would translate into a 17% reduction Microsoft’s global workforce of 90,000 people. Fudzilla’s sources indicate that MSN will take the brunt of the layoffs and the company’s EMEA region will be hit harder than any other geography.

Maybe promoting a crappy operating system and web browser had something to do with it?