Number of people collecting unemployment checks hits 17-year low, jobless claims show

[jpak]

Source: Market Watch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of out-of-work people collecting unemployment checks fell to a 17-year low in April, underscoring the strongest U.S. labor market in years.

So-called continuing jobless claims fell by 49,000 to 1.98 million, marking just the second time they’ve fallen below 2 million during the current eight-year-old economic expansion. Continuing claims also dipped below the 2 million mark in March.

The last time state unemployment offices sent out fewer checks to jobless Americans was in April 2000, the government reported Thursday.

Initial jobless claims, meanwhile, rose by 10,000 to a still-low 244,000 in the seven days stretching from April 9 to April 15. . The number of new applicants for unemployment benefits has registered less than 300,000 for 111 straight weeks, the longest streak since the early 1970s.

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Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/number-of-people-collecting-unemployment-checks-hits-17-year-low-jobless-claims-show-2017-04-20

[nikibatts]

1. It's because people have been unemployed so long, they can no longer collect.

[cstanleytech]

2. I was actually wondering about that myself.

Do they ignore that when they report the unemployment rate or is that factored in as well?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. If the Obama economy were bad, new unemployed would be starting to collect all the time.

It's not bad, it's been a good recovery / expansion, especially when you consider long term trends.

[maxsolomon]

6. Yeah, that's the claim that put * in the White House

Keep making it, it really helps Dems and Obama's legacy. Good job.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. Some percentage, sure. The exact percentage, and whether it's material, from a fiscal policy standpo

int is debatable.

Without any supporting facts, it's little more than a rhetorical political weapon, and since the lag means the status shown is directly impacted by the previous administration's fiscal policies, it would be nice if we could stop using that weapon to savage our own policies/people. Plenty of political foes are happy to do it for us.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Well done Obama. It might start rising soon as Trumponomics kicks in.

After all, tRump business model is: Launder Russian money, shaft contractors, buy Chinese steel and clothing.

[AtheistCrusader]

10. Not to worry.

He'll build a massive bubble first, so the wreckage is amplified and the profiteering prior to the crash is maximized.

[Sunlei]

5. much fewer 'good jobs' where unemployment is available as an option.

[maxsolomon]

7. What?

Can you restate that? Because it sounds wrong.

Are you contending that people CHOOSE unemployment? You have to get laid off to claim it, you know...

[Sunlei]

11. most people don't meet eligibility requirements to collect unemployment compensation.

[maxsolomon]

12. ok. and?

I feel like you want to say that unemployment is much higher than the unemployment rate and that the jobless claims number is a lie.

which is an argument that got trump elected.

[Sunlei]

13. No, Obama policies did raise the employment rate quite a bit. In 2008 USA was in deep depression.

I think todays businesses do everything they can 'legally' do- to avoid paying unemployment to employees they 'let go'. They hire people as 'contractors' or have a time length/sales quota in contract for hires.

[2naSalit]

8. After all the $$ in your UI acct is gone...

and it wasn't much to begin with, you fall off the rolls of the counted for stats.

I am still unemployed and my funds ran out in January, the calculations need to include the populations of not collecting unemployed for a real number.