Jobless Claims Fall to Lowest Level Since Mar. 2008
In another positive sign that the U.S. labor market is gradually improving, the Labor Department reported today that the four-week moving average for initial jobless claims fell to 359,00 for the week ending February 18, which is the lowest level since the week of March 22, 2008, almost four years ago (see chart above). This marks the sixth consecutive weekly decline in the four-week moving average, and the eleventh decline in the last twelve weeks. The number of seasonally-adjusted initial claims (not the four-week average) remained at 351,000, the same as the previous week, and the lowest level since early March 2008.
Huge anomaly in claims vs. people claiming benefits - their trend is opposite:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nowandfutures.com/images/claims_vs_benefits_short.png
bart-
ReplyDeleteyeah, i had noticed that as well.
it looks even more pronounced if you add in the approximately 1% point rise in the % of the US population that has gone disability in the last couple years (and thus dropped out of unemployment numbers).
3.5 million since 2007 pushing the number to 10.6mm. most of the new claims are for "mental" issues.
they get paid and get heathcare.
what we need is for the tax foundation of some such to go after the doctors running "disability mills" and sue them into BK.
I very much want to believe that things are improving on the jobs-front, but annecdotally I still don't see. And, I don't know anyone else who sees it. I'm in NYC and Ct, and things are still pretty miserable around here, perhaps because of our over-dependence on the financial sector for jobs. Anybody really seeing any employment growth out there??
ReplyDelete"Jobless Claims Fall to Lowest Level Since Mar. 2008"...
ReplyDeleteWell not really...
In an election year all sorts of bizzare claims are being made...
As noted at Zer0 Hedge: Initial Claims Print Unchanged From Last Week's Upward Revised 351K
From Gallup Polling dated 02/12/2012: Unemployed = 9.0%; Underemployed = 19.2%
I'm a partner in a 450 person law firm and we're still keeping our first year classes very small. We see some improvement in a few practices areas but not enough to increase hiring.
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