US jobless claims, bankruptcies rise

[Hannah Bell]

The barrage of grim US economic data continued Thursday with the Labor Department’s report that first-time claims for unemployment benefits jumped by 19,000 last week, bringing the total to 479,000, the most since April. Like virtually all of the recent US economic reports, the jobless claims figures were worse than analysts’ forecasts... The four-week moving average of claims also increased, rising by 5,250 to 458,500...

On Wednesday, the payroll firm Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) estimated that private-sector payrolls rose by just 42,000 in July. The company said employment increased at small- and medium-sized firms but remained flat at large companies. Well over 100,000 new jobs must be generated every month just to match the normal growth in the labor market and prevent a rise in the jobless rate.

A separate report released Wednesday by the global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas indicated that layoffs will continue to spread. The firm said that the number of planned layoffs at US companies rose 6 percent in July, marking the third straight month of higher job cuts. Employers announced 41,676 planned terminations... Personal bankruptcies in July hit 137,698, a 9 percent increase from June, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. Filings in July were also up 9 percent compared with the same month a year ago. Personal bankruptcies and bank seizures of foreclosed homes—set to exceed 1 million this year—are among the social disasters confronting millions of workers under conditions of the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/econ-a06.shtml

More:



•Commerce Department: personal spending and incomes were unchanged in June.

•Commerce Dept: The personal savings rate rose to 6.4 percent of after-tax incomes in June. “The entire increase in the savings rate is attributable to the wealthier part of the population."

•Commerce Dept: Factory orders drooped 1.2 percent in June, the second consecutive monthly decline.

•National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index fell 2.6 percent in June, down nearly 19 percent from the same month last year.

[Hannah Bell]

1. k

[Starry Messenger]

2. k & r

[Hannah Bell]

3. nobody wants to know....

[leftstreet]

4. Bankruptcy fees are becoming a huge revenue stream

Court fees are steadily climbing PLUS the latest round of bankruptcy 'reform' extracts even more $ from working class wallets for 'credit counseling' and assorted bullshit.

Look for it get worse as our overlords find more ways to extract our last pennies