WASHINGTON — Orders to factories for big-ticket manufactured goods have fallen for the fifth consecutive month in December, closing out a dismal year in which demand dropped by the largest amount since the recession year of 2001.
Given the severity of the current recession, analysts say manufacturers face bleak prospects this year as well.
The Commerce Department said Thursday that new orders for durable goods dropped by 2.6 percent last month, an even bigger decline than the 2 percent decline that had been expected.
For the year, the government says orders fell 5.7 percent, the second biggest drop on record, exceeded only by a 10.7 percent plunge in 2001.
The government also reported Thursday that the number of people receiving unemployment benefits has reached an all-time high as layoffs spread throughout the economy.
The Labor Department says the number of laid-off workers continuing to claim unemployment insurance for the week ending Jan. 17 was a seasonally adjusted 4.78 million, the highest since records began in 1967.
The department also says the number of Americans filing new jobless benefit claims rose slightly to a seasonally adjusted 588,000 last week, from a downwardly revised figure of 585,000 the previous week.
Both results were worse than analysts expected.
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