Business news in brief

Pennsylvania's employers slashed fewer than 10,000 jobs in July for the second straight month since October. The state Department of Labor and Industry estimated yesterday that Pennsylvania employers shed 4,800 nonfarm jobs in July. Payrolls shrank 8,600 jobs in June, up from the 3,400 the department originally estimated. The state now has fewer than 5.62 million seasonably adjusted nonfarm jobs, the fewest since February 2004. The jobless rate inched upward from 8.3 percent to 8.4 percent in July. It was last at 8.4 percent in February 1985. Still, Pennsylvania's jobless rate remains a percentage point below the national rate.

- AP

Government safety officials warned parents about

Simplicity

bassinets after two more infants were killed when they became trapped. Those two children died after getting trapped in previously recalled Simplicity close-sleeper/bedside sleeper bassinets, the

Consumer Product Safety Commission

disclosed. The Reading company's 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 convertible bassinets contain metal bars spaced farther apart than federal standards allow. If the Velcro-fastened fabric covering the metal bars of the bassinets is not properly adjusted, it can be dangerous. The CPSC warned against these Simplicity bassinets in August 2008, when it reported the deaths of two infants who also got trapped. For details on the affected products, visit

» READ MORE: http://tinyurl.com/lr4gwf

.

- AP

Medical-technology company

Kensey Nash Corp.

said it turned a profit in its fiscal fourth quarter despite weaker sales, as it reduced spending. The Exton company said it earned $4.7 million, or 41 cents a share. A year earlier, the company posted a loss of $1.1 million, or 9 cents a share. Revenue fell 7 percent, to $20.5 million from $22 million. Thomson Reuters said analysts expected a profit of 39 cents a share and $20.7 million in revenue. Kensey Nash sells biomaterials, which are used in implants and can treat or replace tissue, and endovascular products, which are used to treat blocked blood vessels. Its shares fell $2.32, or 8.17 percent, to close at $26.06.

- AP

DuPont Co.

said it would invest $120 million to expand capacity for its DuPont Tedlar polyvinyl fluoride product line. The expansion increases capacity by more than 50 percent for monomer and resin used in producing Tedlar films, which are the critical back-sheet component for solar-photovoltaic modules in all-weather conditions. The company said construction had begun for new monomer and resin facilities at the DuPont Louisville, Ky., and Fayetteville, N.C., sites, respectively, both scheduled to start up in mid-2010.

- AP

Shares of

American International Group Inc.

skyrocketed after the company's new chief executive officer was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying that the company will repay its debts to the government. AIG named

Robert Benmosche

its new CEO earlier this month. He had previously been CEO of

MetLife Inc.

, the largest U.S. life insurer. An AIG spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. Shares of AIG jumped $5.66, or 21.25 percent, to close at $32.30. When the credit crisis hit last year, the U.S. government rescued AIG from the brink of collapse with a loan bailout package worth up to $182.5 billion. The government now owns roughly 80 percent of the huge insurer. AIG is shedding assets and cutting costs as it restructures.

- AP

More than 13 percent of American homeowners with a mortgage are either behind on their payments or in foreclosure as the recession throws more people out of work, the

Mortgage Bankers Association

said. The record-high numbers in the report are being driven by borrowers with traditional fixed-rate mortgages, rather than the shady subprime loans with adjustable rates that kicked off the mortgage crisis. As of June, more than 4 percent of all borrowers were in foreclosure and about 9 percent had missed at least one payment. One in three new foreclosures between April and June was from a prime, fixed-rate loan, up from one in five a year earlier. The worst of the trouble is still concentrated in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida, which accounted for 44 percent of new foreclosures in the country.

- AP

Average rates on 30-year mortgages slid to the lowest levels since May this week,

Freddie Mac

said. The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 5.12 percent, down from 5.29 percent last week, Freddie Mac said. At this time last year, the average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages was 6.47 percent. Rates on one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 4.69 from 4.72 percent.

- AP

The

Labor Department

says the number of workplace suicides increased 28 percent last year. The rise in suicides came as the department reported the overall number of workers who died on the job fell 12 percent. The 5,071 overall workplace fatalities recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2008 was the lowest number since the agency began tracking the data in 1992. That number includes 251 suicides. The agency says economic factors could be responsible for the overall decline in fatalities. Workers on average worked 1 percent fewer hours last year, and the construction industry posted even larger declines in employment or hours worked.

- AP

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

is voluntarily recalling about 1.5 million Durabrand DVD players after the company said it received five reports of the product's overheating, leading to fires and property damage. No injuries have been reported, the company said. The Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday announced the recall of the Durabrand DVD players, which were sold exclusively at Wal-Mart stores nationwide from January 2006 through July 2009. The agency said it did not immediately have the details of the property-damage amounts. The DVD players, made in China and imported by Wal-Mart, can overheat, which poses as a fire and burn hazard to consumers.

- AP