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The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday that the jobless rate in metropolitan St. Louis jumped from 8 percent in April to 9 percent in May.

The rate is not adjusted for seasonal employment, such as construction jobs.

According to the BLS, more than 128,000 St. Louis area residents were looking for jobs in May. The numbers do not include unemployed individuals who have abandoned their job search.

The BLS said the region lost 45,200 jobs — led by declines in construction, manufacturing, trade and utilities — in the 12 months beginning in May 2008.

Nationally, the BLS said joblessness increased in all 372 metropolitan areas measured in its monthly survey. Of those, 15 vicinities — most in California and Michigan — recorded unemployment rates in excess of 15 percent. Another 21 metropolitan regions had unemployment below five percent.

The national unemployment rate in May was 9 no teletrack payday loans.1 percent, which is reported before metro data is released. The BLS will release the national June jobless figures on Thursday. However, the employment outlook isn’t expected to improve.

Companies are likely to remain reluctant to hire back workers even if the recession ends later this year, as many expect. That means the unemployment rates in most metro areas probably will rise in the months ahead — a potential obstacle to a hoped-for recovery.

"The themes that are dominating this worsening labor market are problems in housing and autos, which have forced companies to cut jobs," said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. "Unfortunately, there are still more layoffs to come."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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It began 41 years ago when a meandering drive through then-rural south St. Louis County landed Orville Roy at the Chrysler assembly plant in Fenton.

Recently discharged from the Marine Corps, Roy decided to fill out an application. A job offer came two days later and, with it, a legacy was born.

Eventually, three of Orville Roy’s sons, a daughter-in-law and a grandson, Michael Roy Jr., would follow him through the Fenton plant gates.

"It’s been our living, our livelihood," said Michael Roy Sr., 48, Orville’s son.

No more.

On July 10, Michael Roy Jr. and 600 other Chrysler workers will punch their time cards and go down in history as the final shift at a location that has turned out the automaker’s products for a half-century.

"There’s no middle class anymore," said Michael Roy Sr., forced to retire from Chrysler in December due to medical problems. "The middle class is gone."

That may be an overstatement from a former worker angered and betrayed by what he sees as the failure of the United Auto Workers and Chrysler to protect local production jobs now outsourced to Mexico and Canada.

But it still rings true for families, like the Roys, who have come to view assembly line positions at Ford, General Motors and Chrysler as a birthright.

Multigeneration families employed by and loyal to a single car manufacturer have long been "part and parcel of the automobile business," said Michael Smith, director of the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University and an expert on the labor movement. "That’s why the auto crisis is so devastating."

Matthew Diemer, an assistant professor of counseling at Michigan State University, said it may be premature to declare the "death" of a tradition of children following parents and grandparents into blue-collar manufacturing jobs.

"But maybe," he allows, "what we’re seeing is the death knell."

COMPLICATED OPTIONS

The bell tolled for the Roy family on April 30, the day Chrysler announced it was laying off what remained of Fenton’s Dodge Ram pickup truck work force. (The company halted minivan production at the Fenton location last year.)

After work that afternoon, 24-year-old Michael Roy Jr. and his mother, Cheryl Roy, repaired to a local tavern to consider a series of complicated options.

In mid-May, Cheryl Roy, made her up her mind. An autoworker for 14 years, she rejected a possible transfer to a Chrysler facility in either Illinois or Michigan and took a company buyout.

Cheryl is collecting severance benefits, searching for a job and staying at the family home in Arnold to care for her husband, Michael Sr., who retired following diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Also looking for work, Michael Roy Jr. wonders what the future holds for a young man who aspired to retrace the footsteps of his grandfather and father.

"I’m good with my hands," he said. "And if you’re good with your hands, what can you do now?"

The official answer: Move from the production of goods and services dependent on nonrenewable resources to the production of environmentally sustainable commodities. Manufacturing the blades used in power-generating wind turbines is a commonly cited example.

State and national leaders across the nation, including Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, contend that so-called "green jobs" represent the next wave of American manufacturing.

Michael Jr. knows that getting a foothold in the clean energy work force means going back to school. A few credits shy of an associate’s degree, he walked away from his education to accept an offer of a part-time Chrysler job that he saw as a stepping stone to full-time employment fast cash loan utah.

Strapped by declining income as he helps tend to his father, Michael cannot afford, in terms of either time or money, to return to his studies at Jefferson Community College.

Smith agrees that Michael’s best hope rests in furthering his education,

A former autoworker himself, Smith laments that the days when a union membership card served as a portal to a middle class lifestyle are slowly disappearing.

"The jobs that dad and grandpa had, that didn’t require anything more than a high school education, are no longer around," Smith said. "Even auto working is not just about putting on hubcaps anymore. It’s a lot more sophisticated."

ITS OWN REWARD

That was not the case when Orville Roy, now 80, began working his way through various administrative departments, including payroll, in 1968.

"In the old days, if you knew somebody and you wanted to get hired, all you had to do was ask for a recommendation," he said.

All the better if that acquaintance happened to be a blood relative.

Putting aside their disappointment that jobs once performed in Fenton are now held by workers in Canada and Mexico, Michael Sr. and Cheryl Roy acknowledge their family of six has done all right by the nation’s No. 3 domestic automaker.

"We have four kids that wanted to play sports and take dance classes and do all sorts of things," said Cheryl. "Somebody had to pay for it."

Until Cheryl went to work in the pickup plant in 1995, that somebody was her husband, who had started as a "floater" in the chassis department 11 years before.

"I worked on the line, and that was punishment," said Michael Sr.

"I’ve shoved in engines, I’ve thrown tires and I’ve thrown bumpers," said Michael Sr., lapsing into autoworker jargon to describe the tasks he performed at Fenton. The "punishment" of the line, though, had its own reward: By the time Michael Sr. retired late last year, he was earning $29.95 an hour, plus the heralded UAW benefit package.

There was also the intangible benefit, Michael Jr. noted, of spotting a Dodge Ram on the road and thinking, "I made that truck."

TUG OF TRADITION

Michael Jr. never matched his father’s salary.

Nor, because his tenure paralleled Chrysler’s shrinking market share, was Michael Jr. ever offered a full-time position at the plant.

Michael Jr. can lay claim, however, to a dubious distinction: He worked both the last day and night shift to produce a minivan at the South Plant and, later, was assigned to the last North Plant night shift to build a pickup.

Michael Jr. was circumspect last week as he reflected on the irony of a callback has placed him on a shift that will soon assemble the final Chrysler product ever built in Fenton.

"It’s frustrating," Michael Jr. said. "But (unlike his dad and grandfather) I haven’t put my whole life into it."

Resolved that the time has come for him to move forward, the son of Michael Roy Sr. and grandson of Orville Roy nonetheless feels the tug of the tradition that began on a long ago leisurely drive that wound up, improbably, at a car factory.

"I was kind of hoping," Michael Jr. said wistfully, "that my grandkids would work there."

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The window might be quickly closing on consumers’ opportunity to refinance at great rates — not their home mortgages, but their term life insurance, experts say.

For the first time in a long time, premiums are on the rise.

Over the last several years, prices on simple term life insurance have been plummeting. Premiums in recent years could be less than half of what they were in the early 1990s. For example, the same policy that had an annual premium of $1,400 back then might have cost $350 last year.

The price drop represented easy savings for consumers, who could simply buy a new, lower-priced policy — even with the same insurer — and then cancel their old one.

That’s changing. Here’s what you need to know about term life insurance:

— The pressure is on car insurance quotes. Since the start of the year, insurance companies have started raising premiums for new policies — most often by 5 percent to 15 percent.

— Lock in now. Rising rates do not affect most term policies already in place because premiums are level, meaning they stay the same for the duration of the policy.

— Opt for longer terms. Consider buying a policy with a longer term, such as 20 or 30 years, to lock in today’s relatively low prices.

— Shop around. Premiums can vary widely for the exact same coverage.

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CALGARY–Strong digital cable subscriber growth helped Shaw Communications Inc. bring in higher third-quarter profits, the Calgary-based cable, Internet and satellite carrier said Friday.

"We continue to grow across all of our business segments despite the economic conditions and increased competition," Shaw president Peter Bissonnette told analysts on a conference call.

"We do not believe the economic environment has turned a corner yet, but based on our results this quarter and throughout fiscal 2009 we are confident that we will continue to be able to weather the storm and continue our track record of superior financial performance and customer growth."

Shaw's profits were $132 million, or 31 cents per share, compared to $128 million, or 30 cents per share, for the same period a year ago.

Quarterly revenue rose nine per cent to $861 million.

Shaw said the number of subscribers increased for all its key businesses, but reported gains were most pronounced among digital cable customers. The company added nearly than 111,000 subscribers to its digital cable service for a total of 1,187,183 by quarter-end.

Shaw said basic cable subscribers increased by about 9,600, while subscribers to the company's Internet and digital phone lines grew by 24,600.

UBS Investment Research analyst Phillip Huang said digital cable will be Shaw's biggest growth driver for the next two years.

"We expect Shaw to continue to expand its (Video on Demand) library and achieve 80 per cent" penetration in the digital television arena by 2011, Huang wrote in a note to clients.

More than a year after bidding $190 million in a federal wireless spectrum auction, Shaw continues to carefully plot its foray into that business, which currently dominated by Rogers, Telus Corp payday loan online. (TSX: T) and BCE Inc. (TSX: BCE).

The spectrum auction, held in May of last year, was designed to open up the wireless industry to new competitors.

Executive chairman J.R. Shaw – in a rare appearance on a quarterly conference call – appeared to leave no doubt that the company he founded would eventually become a wireless player, calling it a "natural" move.

"We continue to not take our eye off the wireless ball because that is the future," said Shaw, father of the company's chief executive officer Jim Shaw.

"I think that wireless is becoming more important, not just for voice, but for all modes of communication."

Shaw's entry into the digital phone business several years ago was done at a measured pace as well, he noted, adding the company waited until the technology was perfected before making a move.

"We want to spring off the infrastructure that we have to be the most efficient we can be in light of the future wireless operation that we want to have," Shaw said.

When asked whether waiting too long could pose a risk, with new competitors getting a head-start, Shaw did not seem concerned.

"We think that when the time comes, we'll put forward such an offering that we'll be able to gather up as many customers as we'd like to have at that time to make this a viable business."

Shaw shares rose slightly to $19.72 on the Toronto Stock Exchange in midday trading Friday.

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The U.S. Justice Department may drop a legal case aimed at forcing UBS AG to reveal the names of 52,000 wealthy American clients suspected of offshore tax evasion, the New York Times said, citing a United States official briefed on the matter.

The complaint could be dropped before July 13, when Judge Alan Gold of the United States District Court in Miami, is expected to hold a short trial on the issue, the paper said, adding that a deal could still collapse.

“The Swiss do not want this to be litigated, and it is possible it will settle before then,” the official told the paper.

UBS agreed in February to pay a $780 million fine and disclose the identity of about 300 of its U cash advance lender.S. clients to avert criminal charges that Swiss regulators said would have put the bank’s existence at risk.

U.S. authorities, fearing the agreement might yield very few names, then filed a civil lawsuit against UBS seeking information on as many as 52,000 undeclared accounts.

A UBS spokesman in Hong Kong declined to comment on the report, while the U.S. Justice Department could not be immediately reached for comment.

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by David Holmes)

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MINNEAPOLIS — Fed up with airline fees? Well, brace for more.

As if charging $15 to check a bag weren’t enough, US Airways and United beginning this summer are asking passengers for $5 more if they pay their baggage fees at the check-in counter. (You can avoid the $5 fee if you pay your baggage fee from home. The airlines call it the "online discount.")

Rather than raise ticket fares in the middle of a recession, airlines are piling on fees to make money — fees for bags, fees to get through the line faster, even fees for certain seats.

United Airlines alone expects to rake in more than $1 billion this year in fees ranging from baggage to accelerated frequent-flier awards. That’s more than 5 percent of its revenue.

That revenue stream is causing airlines to become more creative, each watching the other to determine whether passengers accept the fees or revolt free business card templates.

As recently as last year, most fliers came across a fee only if they checked three bags or sent a minor child across the country. Most people, most of the time, traveled fee-free.

But that began to change last spring. Spiking jet fuel prices and passenger resistances to higher fares started airlines looking around the cabin for things they could charge extra for.

Passengers are finding it’s a lot easier for the airlines to add the fees than to take them away.

"They’re going to keep nudging them up until they run into market resistance," said Ed Perkins, a contributing editor at the website Smarter Travel.

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European Union leaders agreed to their most sweeping overhaul of financial regulation, sharpening scrutiny of banks and risks after spending more than half a trillion dollars propping up lenders in the credit crisis.

The heads of the 27 countries backed the creation of an economic-risk watchdog led by central bankers, plus agencies to unify oversight of banks, insurers, investment firms and credit- rating companies. The U.K. won a compromise trimming the power of the new authorities to make decisions involving national money.

The accord gives the EU its most centralized power over financial firms, after national supervision failed to contain the crisis sparked in the U.S. housing market. The region’s governments and central banks are on the hook for more than 3.7 trillion euros ($5.2 trillion) of guarantees and funding.

“For the first time you will have a place where the most powerful” central bankers and regulators “sit down together to discuss common issues,” David Green, former head of international affairs at the U.K. Financial Services Authority and a former Bank of England official, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

In a statement, the leaders said closing gaps in oversight will prevent future crises, boost confidence and help spur recovery from the deepest recession since World War II.

The new regulatory agencies will have authority to ensure EU market laws are implemented the same in every country. They also may gain a greater role in crisis management in the future, the leaders said.

U.K. Sovereignty

At the U.K.’s insistence, the EU scaled back the agencies’ proposed powers to override national regulators and order changes to capital or other measures that could put government funds at risk.

“Stronger cross-border supervision is in our interest,” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a news conference at the summit meeting. “I’ve ensured that our taxpayers will be protected.”

Under political pressure at home, Brown cannot afford “to be seen to have U.K. regulators bending to the decisions of an EU body,” Philip Whyte, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, said in a telephone interview from London. “There’s a perception that the other countries don’t always have the best interests of the City at heart.”

Britain still supported the goal of creating a unified EU rulebook to benefit the cross-border businesses run from the City of London, Europe’s largest financial center with some 600 foreign banks plus the bulk of the domestic industry.

Evolving Powers

“Getting identical supervisory practices is something that London has been pressing for, for a long time, and that’s probably the most important thing here,” said Green, who is now an adviser to the U payday loans.K. Financial Reporting Council.

The agencies may evolve into a greater role through future practice and legal developments, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after the meeting.

“It’s a starting point,” Sarkozy told reporters. “We may still be able to expand the scope.”

While industry groups have largely lined up behind initiatives for more uniform regulation, some bankers voiced doubts over the proposal to give new agencies binding powers to mediate disputes between regulators.

Executives from Credit Suisse Group AG, HSBC Holdings Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc dissented from a statement of support this week by the European Financial Services Round Table. The proposal was backed by others members of the Brussels-based group, including leaders of BNP Paribas SA, Deutsche Bank AG and UniCredit SpA.

Systemic Risk Board

The EU overhaul also creates a European Systemic Risk Board of central bankers and financial regulators to share information and monitor hazards that cut across borders and industries. While its recommendations won’t be legally binding, the body is designed to flag problems such as the build-up of investments in U.S. subprime mortgages — the issue that sparked the turmoil in which banks have absorbed almost $1.5 trillion of losses and writedowns.

In another compromise pushed by the U.K., the EU agreed for the board’s chairman to be elected by the general council of the European Central Bank, instead of always handing it to the ECB president as proposed by the EU’s executive arm.

The EU initiative is one of several shakeups around the world, almost two years since the collapse of two Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds marked the outbreak of the crisis. President Barack Obama this week proposed to revamp U.S. oversight along different lines, giving more power to the Federal Reserve.

Hedge-Fund Regulation

The European leaders also called for action on separate proposals to regulate hedge funds and rewrite bank-capital standards.

The agreement by the prime ministers doesn’t guarantee easy passage for the regulatory revamp. The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, will propose legislation to enact it in the second half of the year, setting off further debate among the governments and members of the European Parliament. Both those groups must agree for the initiative to become law.

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Brazil’s central bank said room for further interest rate cuts has diminished, cementing expectations policy makers will pause after reducing borrowing costs for a fifth straight time next month.

“Despite a residual margin for an easing process, monetary policy must maintain a cautious stance, with the aim of ensuring that inflation converges to target,” the central bank’s board said in the minutes of the June 9-10 policy meeting published today. “The committee agreed that any additional monetary easing must be implemented in a more parsimonious manner.”

The bank has cut the benchmark rate by at least a point at each of its four meetings in 2009 from 13.75 percent at year-end 2008 in a bid to revive growth. Last week, policy makers cut the so-called Selic rate by one percentage point to a record 9.25 percent. Two of the bank’s eight board members favored a smaller 0.75-point cut, citing the delayed effect of lower interest rates on demand and inflation.

After slipping into recession from October through March, Latin America’s biggest economy is rebounding, policy makers said. “Incipient” signs of a recovery coupled with the need to gauge the effect of this year’s rate cuts will lead the bank to be more cautious, said Silvio Campos Neto at Banco Schahin SA.

“They clearly signaled rate cuts are about to end,” Neto, the bank’s chief economist, said in a phone interview from Sao Paulo.

Gap, Pause

Still, slower inflation, kept in check by slack demand and the output gap, provides the leeway for lower interest rates, the bank said faxless cash advances. The bank forecasts that annual inflation will remain below the 4.5 percent target in 2009 and 2010.

Neto expects policy makers to cut the rate to 8.75 percent in July, before pausing at their next meeting in September.

Brazil’s economy slipped into its first recession since 2003 after companies cut back production to adjust for the first global recession since World War II.

The economy shrank 0.8 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months, after a record 3.6 percent contraction in the last quarter of 2008.

Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said today in Sao Paulo that the economy still needs fiscal and monetary stimulus to boost growth to 4 percent in 2010 and 5 percent in 2011.

Apart from lowering the rate to a record, the government cut taxes for consumer goods, injected about $100 billion in money and currency markets and pledged to keep public investment untouched amid falling tax revenue, in a bid to avert recession.

In the overnight interest-rates futures market, the yield on the contract for January 2010 delivery, the most-actively traded on the BM&F commodity and futures exchange, fell three basis points to 8.86 percent at 11:03 a.m. New York time.

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