Forecast: Unemployment to climb back to 9.8%

Employers last month announced the fewest job cuts in more than three years, according to a report today by the job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Planned firings fell 77 percent in February to 42,090, the least since July 2006, from 186,350 a year earlier, the Chicago-based company said. Announcements decreased from 71,482 in January.

The Labor Department’s report in two days is forecast to show the unemployment rate climbed to 9.8 percent in February, the first increase since October, from 9.7 percent the previous month, according to the Bloomberg survey median.