Weekly jobless claims drop 21,000 to 434,000

[Roland99]

Source: MarketWatch

The number of people who filed new claims for state unemployment benefits fell 21,000 to 434,000 in the latest week, marking the third straight decline and the lowest level since early July, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected initial claims to rise to a seasonally adjusted 450,000 in the week ended Oct. 23. Claims for last week were revised up by 10,000 to 455,000. A more accurate gauge of employment trends is the four-week average of initial claims, which is less volatile than the weekly number. The four-week average decreased by 5,500 to 453,350. Continuing claims, which track jobless workers already receiving benefits, fell 122,000 to 4.36 million in the week ended Oct. 16, the latest data available

Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/weekly-jobless-claims-drop-21000-to-434000-2010-10-28?dist=beforebell

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

1. I still don't have a job (it'll be one year in January). Ugh.....

[ProSense]

2. Companies Hoarding $1 Trillion In Cash

Companies Hoarding $1 Trillion In Cash

[ThomCat]

3. Bad news, we still get more than 400k new jobless every month.

21k less is a drop in the bucket. We need 400k less just to have 0 growth this MONTH. That's before we even start to tackle all the people who have been put out of work over the past 3 years.

So many people need jobs, and so many companies are refusing to even consider anyone who isn't already employed that all these millions of people essentially abandoned.

21k fewer out of work says nothing about all these many millions of people waiting for jobs, needing employers that will consider hiring them. :(

4.36 million of them are on unemployment right now.
How many more no longer get unemployment, and are struggling on other forms of public assistance?
How many are struggling in a part-time job, under-employed, waiting for any chance to work full-time again?
How many are homeless?

Weren't we told a few weeks ago to expect news about a huge jobs program aimed at helping to rebuild our federal infrastructure? Has anyone heard anything more about that since then? Anything?

We definitely could use a public works employment program right about now.

[scheming daemons]

4. You are misunderstanding what this number means

This does not mean there was a net loss of 400k+ jobs last week.

400k+ people filed for unemployment last week, but that doesn't tell you how many people were hired last week.


Typically, if the new unemployment claims are below 450,000, then we had positive job growth that week. Because even though 400k+ filed for unemployment, more than that were hired.

This isn't a net number.

A net number would be jobs-lost - new-hires. That's the number we get monthly in the federal jobs report.


Anything below 450,000 for THIS number is good news... and the farther below 450,000, the better.

[OnlinePoker]

5. Show me where 450,000 means job growth

Two years ago, I was seeing 250,000 on here meant job growth and anything after that was job loss.

[TheWatcher]

7. He's too drunk with Propaganda to show you anything.

Meanwhile, I'm sure he's plenty keen to ignore the upward revision that the numbers get every single week, without fail, like clockwork, just as he will ignore it when they are revised upward yet again next week.

It's all Good, Good, Good, no matter what.

[USA_1]

6. I Also Stopped Claiming Unemployment Insurance Because ...

... my benefits ran out.

[Exilednight]

8. And thus, you are no longer counted as unemployed. That's the problem ............

with these unemployment numbers. We are still in the high teens when it comes to actual (vs reported) unemployment numbers.

They can tell people all they want that the economy is getting better, but when actual unemployment is hovering somewhere around 16% to 20% it becomes a very hard case to make. Neither does it mean it's true. The economy is growing for to-big-to-fail corporations, and government has no problem paying out multimillion dollar bonuses to the people who got us into this mess, but seem to have a problem paying out unemployment insurance to those who have paid into it and really need it.

Yet, to-big-to-fail corporations have become even larger, while the working-poor and middle-class move even further down the economic ladder.