Posted on 12/24/2008 9:38:50 AM PST by Lazamataz
The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped by 30,000 to a 26-year peak last week, government data on Wednesday showed, as the country's year-long recession continued to chill the labor market.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 586,000 in the week ended Dec 20 from a revised 556,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said. It was the highest since the week ended Nov. 27, 1982, when intial claims rose 612,000.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast 560,000 new claims versus a previously reported count of 554,000 the week before.
A Labor Department official said there were no special factors influencing the data and no noticeable impact from severe winter weather in northern parts of the country.
The official also said a number of states had reported increasing layoffs in the auto industry, which has been hit hard by consumers cutting back on their spending in the face of rising unemployment and scarcer credit.
The four-week average of new jobless claims, a better gauge of underlying labor trends because it irons out week-to-week volatility, increased to 558,000 from 544,250 the week before.
This was the highest reading since December 1982.
This measure has mounted steadily as the U.S. economy suffers from a credit crisis sparked by the housing slump, forcing lay-offs as firms slash costs to offset weaker income.
The number of people remaining on the benefits roll after drawing an initial week of aid declined by 17,000 to a less-then-forecast 4.370 million in the week ended Dec. 13, the most recent week for which data is available. Analysts had estimated so-called continued claims would be 4.400 million.
There’s also that gosh-darned thing called “WINTER” that has just kicked in the past couple week here in the midwest.... PLUS the usual seasonal layoffs in construction.
By February 20, 2009 there will be an “employment boom”. Jobs will be had by anyone who wants one. The “Magic Mullatto” will make it happen.
The ‘Democrat SURGE’ is working!
Thats 26 YEAR high. Not week.
We need exactly ONE more layoff: CNBC Fact-Checker.
We need exactly ONE more layoff: CNBC Fact-Checker.
It is never mentioned by anyone in the media that there are millions of additional jobs and people working then there was 25 years ago. So 612,000 initial claims in 1982 was alot more in proportion to the 580,000 last week.
|
30,000 additional unemployment claims? One tenth of one percent of the population? Add this to a half million additional claims to date (from when?)? From a total of 8.something million jobs created over the last eight years?
Doesn’t this seem a bit alarmist? WHEN did it become the stated responsibility and policy of the government to provide/generate/guarantee employment? Admittedly, fdr’s programs employed some folk, but didn’t his programs also extend a depression into a great depression? So why is it expected that the government can do ANYTHING to legislate its way out of the problem?
The American experiment appears on the way out. Experimental totalitarian social democracy (Germany, 1938) looks like the new black...
ruefully
Uh, Bush is still in office.
Unfortunately, so are Pelosi and Reid...
I'm sorry, but although I voted for President Bush twice, he is directly responsible that we have this poser about to be inaugurated on January 20th.
He had plenty of power to make this a 'fair' election -- like ordering every US Attorney in this country to go after ACORN fraud - openly rampant in my opinion. President Bush also had it in his power to stop this multi-trillion dollar giveaway of money that neither he nor the government owns.
He had the power to do so many right things. In the end, he concentrated on the greatest near-term threat - terrorism, but didn't concentrate on the most deadly threat - Democrats.
What housing slump? not here that's for sure. It was $147 oil did it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
Lazamataz