Posted on 01/03/2013 6:22:34 AM PST by John W
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, but the data continues to be too distorted by the holidays to offer a clear read of labor market conditions.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 372,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's figure was revised to show 12,000 more applications than previously reported.
Claims data reported for the week ended December 22 had been artificially depressed by the holidays, which resulted in data for 19 states being estimated.
A Labor Department official said claims data for nine states, including California and Virginia, had been estimated last week because of the Christmas and New Year holidays. This suggests the numbers are subject to revisions next week.
The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, rose 250 to 360,000. The claims data has no bearing on December's employment report, scheduled for release on Friday.
Employers are expected to have added 150,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, little changed from 146,000 in November, according to a Reuters survey of economists.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
From another article, the obligatory: More Americans than forecast filed claims for unemployment insurance payments last week...
I note they never added that disqualifier when it applied to all the temporary holiday jobs in December which made Obama's numbers look better.
“The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, but the data continues to be too distorted by the holidays to offer a clear read of labor market conditions.”
It’s real high, but just too DISTORTED by the HOLIDAYS to understand.
Heil Hussein — happy days are here again!
I can understand the distortion problem. After all, we’ve never had a Christmas holiday season before ...
Yeah, you can’t get good numbers with these unexpected holidays popping up.
Every week we get either a disclaimer in the form of an excuse (i.e. turd polishing) when it is a bad result or a whispered confession (i.e. and “oh by the way) if it is a false improved result.
Face it the employment/unemployment picture is dismal. The employment/unemployment picture is WORSE than it was four years ago. Only smoke, mirrors, and LIES can keep the uninformed voter believing otherwise.
Seems everyone went bonkers last week when the number reported was 350,000 (lowest if forever), only to be adjusted UPWARD by 12,000. The lyin’ POS’s haven’t gotten the number correct in four years. Let’s see, how long has Bowbama been in office?
My three indicators are the following;
1) Traffic is ligher than and week in years
2) No employments signs hung anywhere
3) Most commercial property has a “for sale” sign on it.
Right now it sucks and getting worse
It’s the Lying Eyes Syndrome. Who are we to believe? One indicator I watch is foreclosure legal ads in the local paper. Been back through the roof the last two months.
Why do we report these statistics. I don’t believe anything reported any more, and no one cares what the numbers are anymore. It is too theoretical (unless you are one of them, I suppose). The few who watch this blame the republicans, anyway. Why care about any economic stats?
If we don’t care about the debt, then nothing else will matter soon, anyway.
Now, in Iceland, Germany, and other countries, they even tell people what they can name their children.
If we care about managing names by law, then we certainly have no say in the debt.
I haven’t heard of the usual holiday temp jobs but if there were then they may not be laid off until after January’s inventory is complete. Expect more filings in Feb.
They obfuscate the numbers so much that it’s now very difficult to read these stories.
Yeah. 12 freaking thousand!
seasonally adjusted 372,000
Aren't the seasonal adjustments supposed to account for the holiday distortion? Of course, we know why it's really reported this way.
To cover Hussein’s worthless hind end?
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