Plus: GM Files for Landmark IPO, Workplace Fatalities Fall in 2009 and Jobless Claims Hit Nine-Month High.

GM Files for Landmark IPO
General Motors last week filed long-awaited paperwork taking the first formal step toward holding a public stock offering and eventually ending government ownership. The IPO filing, which signals the beginning of a months-long process, highlights a massive turnaround for the Detroit automaker a year after its bankruptcy and sets the stage for Washington to withdraw from its majority ownership stake in the automaker.

The filing with regulators is the first step to GM shares being traded again after the New York Stock Exchange de-listed GM stock when the automaker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2009. The following month it emerged as the new GM.

“GM did not set a price range for its shares, which will trade on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange,” the New York Times reports. “The Treasury [Department] is expected to sell enough stock in the initial offering to bring its overall ownership position in GM below 50 percent — freeing the automaker of the stigma of being called ‘Government Motors,’ which executives have said is hurting its reputation in the marketplace. GM’s filing said taxpayers would ‘continue to own a substantial interest in us following this offering.’

“Taxpayers have poured about $50 billion into GM since late 2008, when the struggling automaker was careening toward insolvency,” the Times continues. “The company has already repaid about $6.7 billion in loans, but most of the rest was converted into equity and can be repaid only by selling those shares.”

In fact, GM returned to profitability at the beginning of this year, turning 2009 losses of nearly $6 billion dollars into a profit of $865 million in the first quarter and $1.3 billion in the last. GM’s first-half profits now stand at $2.2 billion.

“The IPO’s success is crucial for more stakeholders than just U.S. taxpayers,” according to the Detroit Free Press. “Governments in Canada own about 12 percent of GM, a UAW health care trust owns 17.5 percent and old GM’s bondholders own 10 percent.”

Jobless Claims Jump to Half a Million
New initial jobless claims increased in the latest week reported, according to the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday. Seasonally adjusted unemployment claims for the week ending Aug. 14 rose to 500,000, an increase of 12,000 from the previous week’s 488,000 revised total. The four-week moving average was 482,500, an increase of 8,000 over the previous week’s average.

This marked the third consecutive week of rising claims and was the highest weekly jobless level in nine months, elevating concerns about the future of the labor market and the sustainability of a general economic recovery that has yet to make significant gains in employment.

“Construction firms are letting go of more workers as the housing sector slumps and federal stimulus spending on public works projects winds down. State and local governments are also cutting jobs to close large budget gaps,” the Associated Press reports. “The layoffs add to growing fears that the economic recovery is slowing and the country could slip back into a recession.”

Although the latest rise in jobless claims is worrisome, it remains below the roughly 550,000 claims filed in the same period last year, and significantly lower than the peak of 651,000 weekly claims in March 2009.

“But Thursday’s news was especially discouraging, not only because new jobless claims are back on the rise but also because they never dropped low enough for lasting job creation to begin,” the Washington Post explains. “Economists say that the weekly claims number needs to get into the low 400,000s and stay there before employers will start hiring new workers and bringing back laid-off ones.”

Workplace Fatalities Fall in 2009
The number of workplace fatalities fell 17 percent in 2009, according to preliminary results from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, released last week. Last year, 4,340 workers died from work-related injuries, down from a final count of 5,214 fatal work injuries in 2008.

In 2009, transportation incidents remained the No. 1 workplace killer, accounting for 1,682 deaths, the latest data show. Assaults and violent acts, the second most frequently cited cause, totaled 788, followed by contact with objects and equipment (734) and falls (617).

The total number of fatal workplace injuries recorded last year represents the smallest annual preliminary total since such data was first tracked in 1992. It’s also the second consecutive year that fatal work injuries have reached a historic low, following a 10 percent drop in 2008.

However, the BLS attributes much of the drop in workplace fatalities to economic factors, a trend that began in 2007 as workers logged fewer hours during the recession.

U.S. May Lose Lead in Nanotech
While the U.S. remains the world leader in funding and developing new nanotechnology, recent research suggests its lead may be shrinking due to rapid nanotech industry growth in several European and Asian countries.

According to a report from emerging-tech firm Lux Research last week, the U.S. led the world last year in nanotech funding and new patents, with government spending, corporate spending and venture capital investment in nanotechnology reaching $6.4 billion in 2009. However, countries such as Russia, China, Japan, Germany and South Korea may soon be closing the gap.

Although the U.S. retained its nanotech dominance in 2009, the country’s ability to commercialize this technology and bring related products to market is “comparatively mediocre,” Lux Research explains. Germany, Japan and South Korea continue to expand their nanotechnology industries through increasing rates of publication, patents, government funding and corporate spending. Moreover, these countries remain more effective at developing commercial applications for nanotech work.

“China’s efforts, not unlike those of the U.S., came mostly in the form of an economic stimulus package,” Scientific American’s Observations blog says. “Russia meanwhile doled out $757 million in 2009 to fund research, support commercialization and international collaboration, and build research and manufacturing infrastructure…”

“But while the field certainly gained momentum in both countries as a result of the increased funding, both countries have economic and intellectual property protection issues that prevent them from being real threats just yet,” David Hwang, an analyst at Lux Research, said in an announcement of the findings.

The report found that overall global investment in nanotechnology remained steady through most of the economic downturn, with governments, corporations and investors spending a total of $17.6 billion on nanotech in 2009, up 1 percent from $17.5 billion in 2008. The only major decline was in venture capital, which cut its portion of nanotech investment by 43 percent last year.