Benefits Manager

Fewer people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, adding to signs that the job market is strengthening.

The median rates of unscheduled employee absences averaged 0.6 percent of scheduled worker days per month through 2011, which is down from 0.8 percent in 2010 and 0.7 percent in 2009, according to an employer survey by Bloomberg BNA.

The most effective and immediate way to get 401(k) plan participants to improve their deferral rates is to re-enroll them into the plan, according to a report by Fred Reish of Drinker Biddle & Reath.

Labor unions, saying they can't hope to compete with the new breed of conservative fundraising groups, plan to spend less money this year on specific candidates and political party organizations and more on door-to-door canvassing, phone banks and registration drives to help President Barack Obama and other Democrats.

The nation's largest public pension fund voted Wednesday to lower its estimate for annual investment returns, meaning it will need more money from the state, school districts and local governments to maintain its ability to fund promised retirement benefits.

Shares of MetLife Inc. tumbled Wednesday after it was named as one of the four banks to fail Federal Reserve stress tests designed to determine whether banks are strong enough to survive a severe economic downturn.

Cigarette and tobacco producer Reynolds American Inc. says it will eliminate 10 percent of its U.S. jobs, effecting about 540 workers, by the end of 2014.

More than one-quarter of lawyers at 26 percent plan to hire full-time legal staff during the second quarter; however, 4 percent of lawyers expect to cut staff, according to the quarterly Robert Half Legal Hiring Index.