BLS DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1997 New claims for unemployment insurance benefits increased by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted total of 309,000 during the week ended Feb. 15, ETA reports ....(Daily Labor Report, page D-5)_____Jobless claims edged up last week, while the four-week moving average of claims dropped to a six-month low ....(Washington Post, page G8)_____The release of moderately favorable economic reports by the government yesterday raised investor concern about inflation. The number of first-time applicants for unemployment insurance showed a much smaller increase than the 14,000 gain that analysts had predicted....(New York Times, page B13). Since the passage of NAFTA in 1993, the growing U.S. trade deficit with Mexico and Canada has cost the United States a total of 420,000 jobs, estimates the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit research group supported by labor unions and corporations ....(Daily Labor Report, page A-6).
