Ford Credit spokeswoman Chris Solie said the job cuts will be completed by the end of 2007.

"As a company with strong business fundamentals, we believe this new structure will further strengthen our operational effectiveness," Chairman and Chief Executive Mike Bannister said in a statement. "Our strong collections processes will continue while we enhance our originations of automotive financing contracts. The North American restructuring also will provide us with the flexibility and scale necessary to adapt to any changes in business conditions."

The six consolidated centers will manage all back-office functions, such as checking customers' credit, Solie said. Sales employees who work directly with dealers will remain in local markets.

Solie said the job cuts are completely separate from Ford Motor's own restructuring. The automaker said earlier this month that it would slash 10,000 white-collar jobs by the end of 2008 and offer buyouts to all unionized employees.

Ford Credit has restructured operations in North America and several other countries over the past decade. Since 2003, it has closed about 110 branches in the U.S. and Canada.

Gross domestic product measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States and is considered the best barometer of the country' economic standing.

The government said the downgraded reading for the second quarter was mostly related to less inventory building by businesses. Still, the weakness in the housing sector was vivid. Investment in home building plunged at an annualized rate of 11.1 percent in the spring, the most in 11 years.

The second-quarter slowdown comes after the economy sprinted ahead in the first three months of this year, expanding at a 5.6 percent pace, the strongest spurt in 2 1/2 years.

The economy has shifted into a slower gear due to a number of factors, including the cooling of the once sizzling housing market, the toll of once surging energy prices and the impact of the Federal Reserve's two-year string of interest rate increases.

Economic growth is expected to stay somewhat subdued through the rest of this year.

The National Association for Business Economics is forecasting the economy to expand at a pace of 2.6 percent in the current July-to- September quarter and in the final three months of the year.

With the November elections looming, voters' perceptions of the economy's health may influence their choices at the polls.

President Bush's approval rating on the economy is at 39 percent, according to an AP-Ipsos poll. That remains near his lowest ratings.

The index of 30 blue chip stocks surpassed its record, rising to a high of 11,728.46 in early morning trading. Stocks closed only modestly higher amid a dearth of news that could motivate investors; still, it was the market's fourth straight advance.

"These numbers sometimes tend to act as magnets and the market is sometimes pulled up toward it," said Russ Koesterich, senior portfolio manager at Barclays Global Investments in San Francisco.

The Dow rose 29.21, or 0.25 percent, to 11,718.45. It has yet to reach its all-time trading high of 11,750.28, also set Jan. 14, 2000.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes are far off their all-time highs, although their records were reached around the same time.

The S&P, which gained 2.56, or 0.19 percent, to close at 1,339.15, is still about 188 points below its closing high of 1,527.46, but is at a 5 1/2-year high. The Nasdaq, which rose 6.63, or 0.29 percent, to 2,270.02, is not expected to approach its high close of 5,048.62 any time soon.

The Dow, whose large-cap stocks range from aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. to discount retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc., was the first big index to recover because it did not rise as much in value as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq in 2000.

The last time the Dow stood at these levels, Wall Street was propelled by wide-eyed investors eager for a slice of the wealth being generated by the dot-com and housing booms. Traders raced to buy any stocks that looked remotely promising, catapulting the major indexes sharply higher.

But after early 2000, the market began to crumble, slowly at first as doubts about the high-tech boom set in. Signs of recession accelerated the decline, and then the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and their aftermath, including earnings declines and losses in many industries, sent stocks plunging.

It didn't stop there -- corporate scandals including the collapse of Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. also shook Wall Street. The combination of all these factors devastated stocks, sending the Dow to a five-year closing low of 7,286.27 on Oct. 9, 2002, nearly 38 percent off its record high close.

Wall Street made its way back slowly, with investors behaving more cautiously and limiting their exposure to risk as they slowly regained faith in stocks. What has also helped is more than four years of sturdy corporate profit growth despite the threat that energy prices and interest rates would hurt consumer spending and companies' bottom lines.

More recently, the Federal Reserve's decision to pause after more than two years of interest rate hikes and evidence the economy is moderating, not heading for a hard landing, gave investors the impetus to push the Dow past its high close.

On Thursday, the economic news was mixed, and didn't appear to have much impact on trading. The Commerce Department revised its gross domestic product number for spring downward to 2.6 percent from 2.9 percent.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that the number of new people signing up for unemployment benefits dropped last week. The department said new applications filed for unemployment insurance declined by a seasonally adjusted 6,000 to 316,000 for the work week ending Sept. 23. The latest showing on claims was close to economists' expectations for claims to total around 315,000 last week.

Bonds fell Thursday, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note at 4.61 percent, up from 4.59 percent Thursday. The dollar rose against other major currencies. Gold prices also rose.

Crude oil futures also fell. A barrel of light crude settled at $62.76, down 20 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In corporate news, General Motors Corp. rose 78 cents to $33.06 after dissident shareholder Kirk Kerkorian told GM he is interested in buying up to 12 million more shares of the company as he presses the automaker to enter a three-way alliance with Renault and Nissan.

Hewlett-Packard Co., which is drawing scrutiny from Congress over a corporate spying probe, rose 58 cents to $35.97 after the company announced the resignation of general counsel Ann Baskins.

American Greetings Corp., the nation's second-largest greeting cards maker, fell $2.21 to $22.83 after swinging to a loss in the second quarter from a year-ago profit, due in part to new marketing and operational initiatives.

Advancing issues led decliners 8 to 7 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume was 2.36 billion shares, down from 2.76 billion Wednesday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 0.02, or less than 0.01 percent, to 732.56.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.48 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.69 percent, Germany's DAX index slipped 0.01 percent, and France's CAC-40 gained 0.13 percent.

The federal agency on Thursday released its Back-to-school factbook, culling information on tuition, student spending and debt from a series of recently released education studies.

The compilation study indicates that rising tuition fees are a difficult burden for students to carry. However, researchers noted that university graduates enjoyed lower unemployment rates.

"In 2004, the unemployment rate for 25- to 29-year-olds with less than high school was 15 per cent compared to nine per cent for high school graduates, six per cent for college or trade graduates and seven per cent for university graduates," the researchers noted. "Clearly, education plays a big role in overall lifetime earnings."

Paying for education continues to be an uphill climb however with many parents miscalculating how their children will pay for tuition and living expenses.

For example, parents of 40 per cent of children expected that their child would win a scholarship or award based on their academic performance. In fact, only 15 per cent of post-secondary students reported receiving such an award in 2002.

Similarly, the federal agency also noted that parents of 11 per cent of children expected their child to take out loans to pay for school. However, 27 per cent of postsecondary students reported borrowing money from a bank, family, friend or spouse.

More summer and part-time jobs

These percentages are in part a reflection of rising tuition costs, which are outpacing the rate of inflation, according to a study released earlier this month.

Undergraduate students will have to pay an average of 3.2 per cent more in tuition this year than they did last year, the federal agency said. Inflation was 2.4 per cent from July 2005 to July 2006, according to the Consumer Price Index.

Undergraduate students will pay an average of $4,347 in tuition fees this year, up from $4,211 last year.

Researchers noted that more students are taking on summer and part-time jobs to help pay for their education costs, with nearly half of students reporting they had worked during the 2004 school year. By comparison, in 1976 only 28 per cent of students reported working.

"Post-secondary education costs are rising and the evidence suggests that, for many students, their personal savings and earnings during the school year are insufficient to cover the costs of tuition, books and supplies," researchers Jeannine Usalcas and Geoff Bowlby said in their report Students in the Labour Market.

Rising tuition and living expenses are leaving more and more students graduating with student debt. In 2000, about 46 per cent of college and university graduates held government student loan debt with an average balance due of $18,900, the federal agency said.

Despite the financial hardships, university enrolment levels have continued to rise. Between 1992 and 2002, enrolment rose 18 per cent.

Britain's "buy now, pay later" consumer culture has led to unprecedented levels of personal debt. The average Briton now has more than twice as much unsecured borrowing - including overdrafts, personal loans and credit card debt - as the typical European, according to a report published by Datamonitor.

The market research analysts said yesterday that even before mortgage borrowing was considered, the average Briton owes £3,175, compared to the average debt in Europe of £1,588. Datamonitor said Britons had "an insatiable appetite for credit", taking on new unsecured loans of £215bn last year alone.

Borrowers from the UK now account for a third of all unsecured debt in western Europe, Datamonitor added. Paul Marsh, author of the report, said: "While the UK enjoys a buy-now pay-later culture ... many major European countries have a culture of saving and frugality. Countries such as France and Germany are particularly debt adverse."

The boom in unsecured lending has boosted total consumer debt, including mortgages, to almost £1.3trn, close to three times the level of borrowing in 1997, when Labour came to power.

The consumer borrowing crisis is set to become the most pressing concern for Gordon Brown's successor as Chancellor of the Exchequer. George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, said: "Gordon Brown is presiding over an economy increasingly built on debt. This has left many families vulnerable to the triple blow of rising mortgage rates, taxes and energy bills."

The debt crisis is even hitting young borrowers, according to separate research published yesterday by One Advice, the debt advisers. The company said the average 18 to 24-year-old now owes £2,860 in unsecured borrowing. One Advice said the average figures obscured worrying individual cases. It said 108,000 18 to 24-year-olds had credit card debts of more than £5,000.

There are increasingly worrying signs that many borrowers are struggling to stay on top of repayments. The average person has debts that total 150 per cent of their annual income, according to the Bank of England, half as much again as in 1997.

The Bank believes around one million households face problems coping with debt repayments - around 10 per cent of the four in 10 households that have unsecured borrowing.

A report from Citizens Advice earlier this month said 770,000 mortgage borrowers had missed at least one mortgage repayment over the past year, while two million homeowners said they were concerned their finances would not stretch to cover their debts.

The charity said younger people were particularly vulnerable, with mortgage-holders aged 21 to 24 the most likely to default.

The latest figures from the Government's Insolvency Service, published last month, have also unnerved debt campaigners. The numbers becoming insolvent in the second quarter of the year reached 26,000, a 66 per cent rise on the same period in 2005.

Borrowing difficulties have already begun to affect the housing market. Britain's housing boom has saddled newer homeowners with far larger mortgages. Figures from the Hay Group consultancy , published yesterday, showed the typical borrower now spends 51 per cent of monthly pay on mortgage repayments.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders said the number of homes repossessed in the first half of the year was 8,140, the most for more than five years.

At the same time, there is evidence that Britain's biggest banks, which have all reported a rise in bad debt in recent months, are cracking down on consumer credit. Two weeks ago, for example, HSBC said it would introduce annual reviews of all its customers' overdrafts, with cuts to many borrowers' overdraft limits likely to follow.

Alice Douglas, 42, writer: 'We were happy with a £60 TV. Now we spend £1,500'

"Seven years ago, I moved to Wales for a change of lifestyle," says Alice Douglas, 42, a writer from Snowdonia. "I bought a 4,000 sq ft church for £54,000, which was incredibly cheap, because it needed renovation work, but I had never done a big building project before. I thought I'd be able to do the structural work for £80,000 but I've had to spend £300,000. I didn't think of the cost, and even things like floor tiles for the kitchen ended up costing £5,000 because they were limestone, and I spent £25,000 on windows.

"I used every credit card I could get. At one point, I had 10 different credit cards with £8,000 on most of them, so that my debt was up to £60,000. It was all about to collapse until my mortgage company valued my property, which has massively increased in price.

"I still have about £30,000 on my credit cards, but I've just learned to juggle them. Once you've got them, there's too much temptation and you get used to a lifestyle where you want to have lots of things. We used to be happy with a £60 television set, but now we spend £1,500 on a 38-inch LCD.

"You get sucked into it, and get used to spending large amounts without thinking about it, because it's on a card. It does make a different because it doesn't feel like real money. If it did feel real, it would feel obscene. I went to London recently and spent £3,000 in Whistles, on clothes. I'm about to buy another property with an 85 per cent mortgage and I'll get the deposit on credit card.

"It's a gamble but it could pay off. If you're shrewd, you can use it to your advantage. My credit rating is very good because I borrow a lot but I'm able to make my payments. It used to stress me out but now I think, if I lose everything, it wouldn't be the end of the world."