Ahead of the Bell: Unemployment Rate

The Labor Department is scheduled to release the data at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR predict the unemployment rate rose to 5.2 percent in April, up from 5.1 percent last month, and that payrolls shrank by 70,000 thousand, compared with a loss of 80,000 thousand jobs in March.

The Labor Department on Thursday said new applications for unemployment benefits soared by 35,000 to 380,000 last week. Private economists had expected claims would rise by a smaller 18,000.

The government's four-week moving average of new claims, which smooths out week-to-week fluctuations, fell by 6,500 to 363,750.

Corporate job cuts announced this week include:

General Motors Corp., the nation's biggest automaker, said it will layoff 3,500 workers as it cuts production of some trucks and SUVs at four U.S. plants this summer.

Toolmaker Black & Decker Corp. will lay off 700 employees after reporting that first-quarter earnings were down 37.6 percent from the same period last year.

Health care company Johnson & Johnson said it's eliminating 400 U.S.-based sales jobs by year's end. The layoffs are being blamed on falling sales of anemia drug Procrit, whose sales have plunged since federal regulators put new safety warnings on such drugs last year, the company said.