ECONOMY

ECONOMIST PREDICTS U.S. ECONOMY WILL GAIN 2.1M NEW JOBS THIS YEAR

The American economy will add about 2.1 million new jobs this year, and the unemployment rate will remain at 5%, a White House economist said.

“The job market for the United States will continue to be strong,” a member of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, Matthew Slaughter, said. “The administration’s forecast is for monthly payroll growth of 176,000 jobs and for the unemployment rate to remain at 5%.”

– Bloomberg News

TECHNOLOGY

MICROSOFT FACES CRITICISM OVER DELETION OF BLOG BEIJING – Microsoft has been accused of cooperating with Chinese censorship by deleting the blog of a journalist who protested at the sacking of an editor.

The computer giant issued a statement yesterday justifying its decision to remove the Web diary of the writer, known as Michael Anti, from its MSN Spaces server. “Most countries have laws and practices that require companies to make the internet safe for local users,” it said.

Michael Anti is the pseudonym of a Chinese researcher working for the New York Times’s Beijing bureau. The name is also a pun: in Chinese, “an” means both “peace” and “security” – as in the Ministries of State and Public Security – and “ti” means “alternative.” Like others, he has usually been careful not to antagonize the authorities too overtly.

This changed with the sacking last week of the editor and two deputy editors of the Chinese capital’s most independent newspaper, Beijing News.

He urged his readers to boycott the paper and urged its journalists to quit in protest. Discussion of events at the newspaper has been banned by the government’s Propaganda Department.

– The Daily Telegraph

POULTRY

U.S. CHICKEN PRODUCERS TO BEGIN TESTING FOR BIRD FLU American chicken producers, including Tyson Foods and Pilgrim’s Pride, will begin testing all their flocks to make sure they are free from hazardous forms of avian influenza, after the disease decimated the industry in Asia.

Samples will be taken on the farm before the birds are moved to processing plants under a program announced yesterday by the National Chicken Council, a trade group. America, the world’s largest producer and exporter of poultry, is preparing for the possibility that the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu may reach domestic flocks.

– Bloomberg News

RETAIL

RETAILERS POST MODEST GAINS IN HOLIDAY SALES American retailers posted modest holiday sales gains after using discounts to lure last-minute shoppers.

Wal-Mart Stores had the smallest December sales increase in five years and said fourth-quarter profits may be crimped. Holiday sales rose 3.5%, the International Council of Shopping Centers said yesterday.

– Bloomberg News

IN BRIEF

Boeing’s commercial aircraft orders more than tripled to a record 1,002 last year on demand from Asian and Middle Eastern carriers, likely overtaking Airbus SAS for the first time in five years … Sotheby’s Holdings, the world’s largest publicly traded auction house, slipped behind Christie’s International in total sales as it reached for more profit … Natural gas in New York fell below $10 per million British thermal units for the first time since hurricanes devastated Gulf of Mexico production as mild weather caused an unexpected rise in inventories.

– Bloomberg News