°®¶¹´«Ã½

Initial jobless claims rose by 12,000 last week and continuing claims reached a new record, the Labor Department said Thursday.

FedEx Corp. did not illegally deny overtime pay to contract delivery drivers who said the company wrongly called them entrepreneurs, a Seattle jury decided late Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.

Ward Transport and Logistics Corp. is cutting the pay of its drivers and hourly workers by 8.9%, Pennsylvania television station WTAJ reported on its Web site Tuesday.

Manufacturing in the U.S. improved in March but showed contraction for a 14th straight month, the Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday.

Construction spending fell 0.9% in February, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

Democratic lawmakers announced legislation Tuesday that they say would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one fifth, reduce dependence on foreign oil and create energy-related jobs, the Associated Press reported.

Daimler AG plans to cut its labor costs by 2 billion euros, or about $2.7 billion, by trimming hours and wages for 73,000 non-production workers in Germany and by delaying a pay increase, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Manufacturing activity in the Chicago region showed contraction in March for a sixth straight month, the Institute for Supply Chain Management-Chicago said.

New York Gov. David Paterson (D) ruled out tolling 13 free bridges over the East and Harlem rivers in New York City as a funding source for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the New York Post reported.

Surface transportation trade among the United States, Canada and Mexico plunged 27.2%, the biggest percentage decline on record, to $47.5 billion in January from a year ago, the Department of Transportation said Tuesday.