Business Briefing

Paccar Inc. of Bellevue has declared an extra cash dividend in the amount of $2 per share, payable Jan. 5, to stockholders of record at the close of business Dec. 18. Paccar said it will buy back $300 million of its shares.

It also declared a regular quarterly cash dividend in the amount of 20 cents per share, payable March 5, to stockholders of record at the close of business Feb. 16.

In October, the truck manufacturer reported record net sales of $4.21 billion, up 19 percent over the same quarter last year, and net earnings of $403.6 million, up 32 percent. Paccar also said it would lay off as many as 400 workers at its Kenworth Truck Co. plant in Renton.

NATIONAL NEWS

News from the workplace may ease Fed's inflation fears

Growth in worker productivity slowed sharply in the summer while wages and benefits rose at a rate that was far below a previous estimate, a development likely to ease inflation worries at the Federal Reserve.

Productivity edged up at a 0.2 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That was slightly better than the zero change reported a month ago.

Wages and benefits per unit of output increased at an annual rate of 2.3 percent in the third quarter, much slower than the 3.8 percent advance previously estimated.

Analysts said this downward revision should ease fears at the Fed that wage pressures were threatening to send inflation sharply higher.

In another economic report, the service sector of the U.S. economy grew at a quicker pace in November than in the previous month and faster than analysts expected, shaking off effects of the housing slump.

Wal-Mart settles lawsuit over life-insurance benefits

Wal-Mart has settled a nearly $5.1 million class-action lawsuit brought by the estates of 73 former employees in Oklahoma.

A federal judge in Tulsa gave final approval Monday to the settlement, which calls for about a third of the money to go to the plaintiffs' lawyers and for each of the plaintiffs to receive $35,000 to $50,000.

The plaintiffs had sued to recover life insurance benefits they said Wal-Mart Stores Inc. wrongfully received upon the employees' deaths.

Wal-Mart had taken out life insurance policies on its employees, making itself the beneficiary, and the lawsuit alleged that Wal-Mart had no "insurable interest in the lives of its rank-and-file employees."

Bankruptcy filings are down sharply in the U.S.

U.S. bankruptcy filings fell 37.6 percent in fiscal 2006 even with a surge in the first 16 days of the year, federal court administrators say.

Individual bankruptcies fell 37.9 percent to 1,085,209 in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, from 1,748,421 in the year earlier, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said.

Business filings fell 20.1 percent to 27,333 from 34,222, the Washington, D.C.-based agency said.

The fiscal 2006 total includes more than 600,000 individual filings in the first 16 days of October 2005 in advance of a law that made it harder for people to wipe out their debts in court.

The new bankruptcy law, effective Oct. 17, 2005, requires individuals to get credit counseling, meet certain income guidelines and pay higher fees for filing bankruptcy petitions.