Posted on 07/18/2013 7:54:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. fell more-than-expected last week, easing concerns over the U.S. jobs market, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending July 13 fell by 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 334,000, compared to expectations for a drop of 13,000 to 345,000.
Jobless claims for the preceding week were revised down to a gain of 358,000, from a previously reported 360,000.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended July 6 rose to 3.114 million. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.959 million from last week’s revised figure of 3.023 million.
The four-week moving average was 346,000, a decline of 5,250 from the previous week's revised average of 351,250.
The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar held on to gains against the euro, with EUR/USD shedding 0.3% to trade at 1.3085.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock index futures were little changed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures indicated a gain of 0.1% at the open, S&P 500 futures pointed to a rise 0.1%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a decline of 0.1% at the open.
There = They’re
Keeping the New Normal normal.
Jobless claims for the preceding week were revised down to a gain of 358,000, from a previously reported 360,000.
ECONOMY
Updated July 16, 2013, 7:34 p.m. ET
Wild Cards for the Fed’s Exit Strategy
Inflation, Jobs and Fiscal Policy Among the Question Marks
But a number of Fed officials have doubts about whether the jobless rate is a very good indicator of the labor market’s health. In the past year the unemployment rate has fallen from 8.2% to 7.6%, an apparent sign of improvement. However, the rate has fallen in part because people are dropping out of the labor force—the share of adults holding or seeking a job—meaning they’re no longer counted as unemployed.
“We have underemployment, part-time work, people leaving the labor force, reduced participation, long-term unemployment,” Mr. Bernanke said at his June press conference. That could mean the jobless rate is “not exactly representative of the state of the labor market,” he said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324348504578609951521236118.html
Employers are just cutting their full time to 29 hours and hiring part time for 20 hours.
And I’m betting that when a small business that’s growing gets to 49 employees that the strategy will become to start an entirely new business in their same line with new management and a profit-sharing contract. And they will go to 49 employees, and they to 49, etc.
So, I guess this means to pay attention to super-small cap.
So 34,000 more Americans can’t find a job and have run out of benefits. Outstanding job mr. pretender!
The big statistic in this month’s report is the increase in part-time jobs - 320,000. So of the 180,000 “jobs created” 320,000 of them are part time.
This might seem a bit confusing. But what you’re seeing is the cannibalization of existing full-time jobs which are being turned into part time jobs.
Obama’s equation for “creating” jobs...?
If an employer needs someone to work 40 hours a week to meet his need, the government can show an increase in jobs if we turn that one 40-hour per week job into two 20-hour per week part time jobs.
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.