Posted on 05/24/2012 6:42:07 AM PDT by John W
New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week, government data on Thursday showed, suggesting the labor market continues to expand at a moderate pace.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 370,000, the Labor Department said. The prior week's figure was revised up to 372,000 from the previously reported 370,000.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims unchanged last week.
Claims have barely budged in the past four weeks indicating a marginal improvement in the pace of job creation after April's disappointing 115,000 gain in nonfarm payrolls.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
Isn’t this the second week that claims fall because the previous week’s number was revised upward?
They don’t even bother to report the unemployment RATE anymore.
It's a game of shells... EVERY week, they revise the previous week upwards, so it looks like there's a decrease. So... Last week was reported as 370,000... Revised upward to 372,000... So, today's 370,000 looks like a dip... Fuzzy math
If they wanted to be fair about it, they'd always incorporate the revision together with the new change. In this case... DOWN 2,000 from the REVISED figure from last week, and UP 2,000 due to the revision...
Flat. Period. No change. The rest is bull.
Nothing to get excited about -
As usual they will adjust this week’s numbers upward next week.
Just shows how desperate the MSM is to prop up their dear leader.
Second in a row, for sure. Like a print version of TV news anchors, they just print whatever is put in front of them.
Interesting....I wouldn’t have noticed that, had you not pointed it out.
At this point I’m beyond believing anything that eminates from this administration. I believe nothing they say period. The good part of that is that it saves me the time to parse the GOP’s crap.
Let's review here... initial claims had been 368,000 three weeks ago.
In last week's report it was adjusted up to 370,000 then last week was initially reported at 370,000 so the media said "unchanged" even though comparing initial-to-initial it had risen 2,000.
Now that last week has been adjusted up, by 2,000, where it was already 2,000 over the prior week's initial claim, they're saying the numbers are down by again comparing the initial again to the adjusted for the prior week.
We've gone from 368,000 to 372,000 and it's written in such a way as to hide the bad news.
This slight-of-hand reporting is crafted to create an illusion of stability or even improvement.
An honest mind boggles at the open duplicity.
The "New Unemployment Claims" is reported every Thursday.
Both numbers are complete fabrications, calculated and reported to do the least political damage to Democrats and the most harm to Republicans.
I think the actual unemployment rate is reported only on a monthly basis rather than weekly.
Absolutely excellent dissection.
This is a regular event going back months and months.
Close. They claimed last week was "unchanged" because last week's initial was the same as the prior week's revision upward.
3 wks ago: 368,000 (initial), 370,000 (revised) 2 wks ago: 370,000 (initial), 372,000 (revised) 1 wk ago: 370,000 (initial).
Their spin? It got better, economists surveyed were wrong about it being unchanged when the initial this week was unchanged vs initial last week.
The actual unemployment rate is NEVER reported. The government crafted unemployment rate is released with the previous month's numbers, usually on the first friday after month's end.
“Initial claims” and “unemployment rate” are apples and oranges.
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