Layoffs easing: Initial unemployment claims drop to 316,000

Los Angeles Times ^ | 11/27/2013 | Ricardo Lopez

[SeekAndFind]

Layoffs appear to be easing as the number of people who filed for unemployment claims last week dropped by 10,000 to 316,000, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday.

The number of initial unemployment claims has decreased in six of the last seven weeks, data show. The four-week moving average, a more reliable measure that irons out weekly volatility, fell by 7,500 to 331,750, the Labor Department said.

A year ago, the four-week moving average was 401,000. California recorded the largest drop in initial jobless claims. Not adjusted for seasonality, the data show that claims in the Golden State fell by 4,644, largely due to fewer layoffs in the service industry, state officials reported.

[SeekAndFind]

Ahead of Thanksgiving Weekend, this week's jobless claims were announced on Wednesday instead.

So, it's fun with Jobless claims numbers once again.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: number of people who filed for unemployment claims last week dropped by 10,000 to 316,000

Last week, jobless claims was 323,000. This means it was ADJUSTED AND REVISED UPWARDS by 3,000 (once again). I have yet to see a DOWNWARD REVISION.

[edpc]

Seasonal employee bump and discounting of people no longer actively seeking employment. Nothing has changed since 2009. In fact, in many ways, it has gotten worse.

[blam]

NOMURA: It's The End Of The End Of The World

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Happy days are here again.

I've been laid off twice in the last five years. Never before in the previous 25. The last time took 13 months to find a job.

Thanks Obama Voters™

[MUDDOG]

The four-week moving average, a more reliable measure that irons out weekly volatility

How long an average does it take to iron out fake numbers?

[43north]

Liars! Damned liars!

[Starboard]

With polls showing Obama sinking fast, the administration is working overtime to put a 200K handle on the U/E numbers. Look for this soon.

[fatnotlazy]

It's all utter bullship.

[Nachum]

A Glimpse Inside The Department Of Labor's Curious Initial Claims Seasonal Adjustment

[peeps36]

I feel bad for the people who are trying to find a good job in this obama economy. There are no jobs in this part of Connecticut. The Sunday paper use to have three full pages of help wanted adds before the marxist took over. Today the Sunday paper is lucky if it fills three columns on one page. That's not even half a page. It's ridiculous.

[Two Kids' Dad]

Hahahaha!!! I’ll be adding myself to the numbers of the unemployed because I got laid off yesterday. Great timing L.A. times.

[Steve_Seattle]

I remember during the first 6-7 Bush years, with much lower unemployment and much better economic figures across the board, the media always tried to make the numbers seem worse than they were, to cast some shadow upon them.

[equaviator]

Life in this white-flight Metro Detroit bedroom community has not changed much since 2009 and it may indeed have gotten worse because the cost of living has gone up and with the added expense of costlier health insurance, being underemployed means more people living at near-poverty levels than the community has ever planned for.

[Steve_Seattle]

I lot of job announcements have moved from newspapers to sites like Craig’s List and other websites, which are either cheaper than newspapers or completely free. I don’t know if it has anything to do with your situation, but where I live the newspaper ads became much more sparse well before Obama took over.

[headstamp 2]

Yep, settling into your average European style socialist state economy.

Low growth, high unemployment, high tax/regulation, huge government apparatus, gimme cartel of LIVs.

[DonaldC]

I’ve talked to two friends who have owned small businesses for 10+ years. Both said taxes have beat out labor as their highest expense. Think about that.

[kabar]

More good news to help resuscitate Obama’s image.

[wally_bert]

Craigslist has been rather thin lately in my area of SC for legitimate jobs or tech/creative gigs.

Up until last year there were some decent pickings. Now a lot are scams and requests for porn actresses.

[usconservative]

The number of initial unemployment claims has decreased in six of the last seven weeks, data show

When you look at the percentage of folks employed in this country compared to historical norms, we're at what .... a 40+ year low in the percentage of Americans with full time jobs?

It's not hard for initial unemployment claims to fall at this point, with all those who've left the work force, given up looking, etc.. Factor in that most companies are running so lean now there's no one left to lay off and still keep the company door's open for business that of course the initial number had to drop.

Now when will the media do the math and see that there are 1.2 million plus American's losing their jobs monthly and having to find new employment? that's the "churn" in our economy right now, and that's still a very high number.