U.S. Jobless Claims Fall to 330,000 in Latest Week from 335,000; Lowest in 5 Years

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

@Reuters: U.S. jobless claims fall to 330,000 in latest week from 335,000 in prior week; lowest in five years #BREAKING

Jobless claims drop to five-year low; labor market healing

Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:33am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to its lowest since the early days of the 2007-09 recession, a hopeful sign for the sluggish labor market.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 330,000, the lowest level since January 2008, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Claims have now fallen for two straight weeks, suggesting that if employers are concerned tax hikes enacted this year will affect consumer demand, this is not leading to more layoffs.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to rise to 355,000 last week.

Economists have cautioned about reading too deeply into this month's figures, as claims tend to be volatile around this time of the year. This is because of large swings in the model used by the department to iron out seasonal fluctuations.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE90E0KL20130124

[karynnj]

1. Had Romney won, this would have been seen as the result of

trust in his economic skills and the likely extension of the Bush tax cuts. Instead, it is at most another baby step in the right direction.

[fasttense]

2. Hmm, the numbers are all so positive while the reality is all so miserable.

Here in my county the unemployment rate is 12.6%. So glad that the American economy can recovery without us.

[jschurchin]

3. What are you, some kind of realist?

The powers that be insist all is well. We are in the middle of an incredible recovery, why do you want to go and piss on their parade. Just close your eyes, cover your ears and repeat after me, ALL IS WELL, ALL IS WELL!!!

[fasttense]

4. All IS Well, All Is Well

Shit, it doesn't work......sigh

[jschurchin]

5. Yeah, it doesn't work for me either.

I went to the DOL website and found this,

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 436,766 in the week ending January 19

That sounds more like the activity around the country. Want to here the scary part? That figure is a decrease of 119,944 from the previous week. So last week actual unemployment claims were 556,710.
I love when our government suspends the laws of mathmatics and proceeds to tell everyone, ALL IS WELL.

Is this a great country or what?

[fasttense]

7. Oh my, I had no idea.

Thanks for posting those numbers.

Just came back from listening to Dr. West and Tavis Smiley on their poverty tour. They have been bugging President Obama to give a speech on poverty. He does NOT seem inclined to do it. Here is their website with a petition to get him to talk about what is really going on in our failing economy: www.afuturewithoutpoverty.com

Thanks for not buying into the myths and keeping it real.

[dmallind]

8. ...aqnd right on cue the "real number" types appear.

Never hear a fucking peep from them when seasonal adjustments increase the raw numbers, but the minute that seasonal adjudtment figure switches to negative, the tinfoil hattery begins every year...

[jschurchin]

10. And right on cue the Brain Surgeons appear.

Unfortunatly, no amount of hard data will change your opinion that everything is just peachy.

http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/wkclaims/report.asp

There you go Doc. Reasearch is your friend, Talking points, are not.

[Le Taz Hot]

13. Yeah, I particularly like that part about

the 2007-2009 recession.

[dmallind]

9. Well there's a few things irrelevant there

1) Initial claims are only tangentially related to unemployment rate. Different things measured differently. How many people GOT jobs this week? (the answer of course is unknown at this time, but what we would need to even start connecting the two)

2) Counties do differ. There are counties with rates under 4% too. They are no more the nation than is your 12.5%. The more aggregated the metric, the more generally but less specifically relevant it is. No doubt there are streets with a majority of unemployed and streets with full employment - probably in the same town let alone county. What do they say about the economy of the US?

3) The economy certainly can recover without individual counties. Even in, say, 1999, there were high UE counties. Since labor is mobile, certainly at the county level, this is not an holistic problem.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

6. Didn't 9,000 recently show up for a job fair in Florida...

in which about 1,000 seasonal retail jobs were being offered? Some parts of the country may be booming, but others are struggling, like NC, with the fifth worst unemployment in the nation. Rethuglicans to the rescue, though, giddyup.

[jpak]

11. Fuck off GOP Econ-terrorists

yup

[Joel thakkar]

12. good

good to hear this

[cstanleytech]

15. Does this take into account those whos unemployment has run out? nt