Amazon posts 3Q shortfall as online sales drop

NEW YORK – Online behemoth Amazon reported a shortfall in third-quarter profits and sales as the pandemic-induced online splurging eases.

The Seattle-based company reported a profit of $6.2 billion, or $6.12 per share for the three-month period ended Sept. 30 compared with $6.3 billion, or $12.37 per share a share, during the year-ago period. Revenue jumped 15% to $110.8 billion.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet on average expected $111.55 billion in quarterly revenue and per-share earnings of $8.90.

In July, Amazon warned that revenue would be in the range of $106 billion to $112 billion for the third quarter. Still, the quarter marks the fourth consecutive one of revenue topping $100 billion.

Amazon is one of the few retailers that has prospered during the pandemic.

As physical stores selling nonessential goods temporarily or permanently closed, people stuck at home turned to Amazon for everything from groceries to cleaning supplies.

But Amazon is seeing a slowdown in sales growth as a result of the company lapping against last year’s huge pandemic-induced shopping binges.

The slowdown also reflects that people, particularly in Europe and the U.S., are more mobile and are doing other things besides shopping online.

Amazon’s other businesses expanded, too. Sales at its cloud-computing business, which helps power the online operations of Netflix, McDonald’s and other companies, grew 39% in the quarter.

At its unit that includes its advertising business, where brands pay to get their products to show up first when shoppers search on the site, sales rose 49%.

U.S. jobless numbers fall to another pandemic low

WASHINGTON – The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to a pandemic low last week as the job market continues to recover from last year’s coronavirus recession.

Jobless claims dropped by 10,000 to 281,000, lowest since mid-March 2020, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Since topping 900,000 in early January, weekly applications have steadily dropped, moving ever closer to prepandemic levels just above 200,000.

The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week gyrations, fell by nearly 21,000 to 299,250, also a pandemic low.

In all, 2.2 million people were collecting unemployment checks the week of Oct. 16, down from 7.7 million a year earlier.

The pandemic slammed the economy in the spring of 2020.

In March and April last year, employers slashed more than 22 million jobs as businesses closed or reduced hours in response to lockdowns and consumers staying home as a health precaution.

The economy recovered with unexpected speed, helped by the rollout of vaccines and generous government relief checks and other spending.

By last month, the economy had reclaimed more than 17 million of the lost jobs. But that was still 5 million short of where the labor market stood in February 2020.

Hiring slowed sharply last month – to just 194,000 new jobs after averaging a 607,000 a month the first eight months of the year.

That is partly because companies can’t find enough people to fill their job openings – 10.4 million in August, second highest in records going back to 2000.

From wire reportsJobless claims “continue to trend lower, gradually moving closer to levels prevailing prior to the recession,” Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a research report. “Businesses are holding on to workers amid reports of severe labor shortages.″

Many Americans have retired.

Others are still wary of the health outlook or struggling with daycare issues.

Still others are rethinking their lives and careers after spending months locked down at home.