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Once again we were spot on. Because as the DOL just reported, yet again the fate of the US economy is left to seasonal adjustments. Non-seasonally-adjusted initial jobless claims surged over 47,000 this week to its worst in 6-months. But by the magic of PhD adjustment, this translated into 3,000 seasonally-adjusted drop from last week, beating expectations and printing near 'recovery' cycle lows. We can only imagine the adjustments needed to cope with Microsoft's layoffs. 2014 has seen the smallest percentage drop in initial claims since the crisis began.

In the week ending July 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 302,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 304,000 to 305,000. The 4-week moving average was 309,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since June 2, 2007 when it was 307,500. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 311,500 to 312,000. There were no special factors impacting this week's initial claims.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting the labor market recovery was gaining traction. However, a separate report showed U.S. housing starts and building permits unexpectedly fell in June, suggesting the housing market recovery was struggling to get back on track after stalling in late 2013. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 302,000 for the week ended July 12, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's claims were revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast...

We are now in a situation where every major economy in the world is in a total mess.” Greyerz goes on to explain, “Japan’s economy is going to disappear into the Pacific. China is having its problems. Europe has problems. The EU will never work and was not supposed to work. The euro is an artificial currency and, in the long run, will not survive. The U.S. stock market is at an all-time high, but that has nothing to do with the real economy which is an absolute mess. So, the world has never been in a situation where all...

WASHINGTON - If anyone needs further evidence the White House is out of touch with reality, it came in an official statement this week that President Obama has made the world a more tranquil place. This was the White House's exaggerated response to a well-documented, front page Wall Street Journal story that concluded "the breadth of global instability now unfolding hasn't been seen since the late 1970s." The article also charged that under this administration, "U.S. global power seems increasingly tenuous." This should be obvious to anyone who's been following foreign events -- make that crises -- since Barack Obama,...

For business graduates, job placement appears to be on par with last year, if not slightly better, and salaries are holding firm. At a recent open house for parents of incoming freshmen business students at Bentley University, Career Services Director Len Morrison had an encouraging message to share. Recent graduates have been landing jobs with ease, and companies have been flocking to campus, many making multiple hires, Morrison said. “I told them that I don’t think there is a better time to be graduating as a business student,” he said. “The economy is back and looks like it is moving...

As the digital sector grows, jobs that rely on older technologies, such as newspaper reporters, mail carriers, and lumberjacks, are rapidly becoming obsolete. A new study by CareerCast revealed the top 10 professions predicted to lose the most jobs by 2022, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mail carriers are most endangered, with a projected 28% decline by the year 2022. Farmers and meter readers will also see significant shrinkage, with an anticipated 19% decline for each within the next eight years. Is your job headed for the trash pile? 1. Mail Carrier BLS job description: Sort...

Back in 2013, Williams predicted that it would be “game over” in 2014. What are the statistics showing him now? Williams says, “They are showing the economy continues to weaken, and it never recovered. A second quarter contraction here would most assuredly be recognized as a new recession, and I contend we never got out of the old recession. We had plunge, stagnation and, now, we are turning down anew.”

Camden, New Jersey, with a population of 70,390, is per capita the poorest city in the nation. It is also the most dangerous. The city's real unemployment—hard to estimate, since many residents have been severed from the formal economy for generations—is probably 30–40 percent. The median household income is $24,600. There is a 70 percent high school dropout rate, with only 13 percent of students managing to pass the state's proficiency exams in math. The city is planning $28 million in draconian budget cuts, with officials talking about cutting 25 percent from every department, including layoffs of nearly half the...

When the CEO of the world's biggest company doubts the veracity of US economic data, you know you have a problem. After quarters of disappointing growth in the face of miraculous equity market performance; Wal-Mart CEO Bill Simon warns that shoppers aren’t returning at the pace one might expect years after the recession peaked, despite mainstream media interpretation of the data showing unequivocal growth. Simply put, he exclaims, "the unemployment numbers particularly have been difficult to read with the number of people dropping out of the work force," adding that if we see a further drop in the participation...

Last Thursday, an Obama-centric mainstream media trumpeted the creation of 288,000 jobs and the reduction in the unemployment rate from 6.3 percent to 6.1 percent. Lost in the manufactured euphoria are the sobering details: America is well on its way to becoming a nation where millions of workers can only find part-time, lower-paying jobs. On the surface, the numbers are impressive. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported the aforementioned 288,000 jobs gain, while the household survey reported a gain of 407,000. Yet those numbers pale in comparison to the rise in the number of voluntary and involuntary part-time jobs,...

Why do we tax corporations? No, seriously — why? If you’re like most people and all New Democrats, your response will be “because that’s where the money is,” or some variant thereon. Corporations have lots of money, the thinking runs, and are unlikely to mind if the government helps itself to some of it. And since they don’t vote, it doesn’t much matter if they do mind. An economist, on the other hand, would point out that, one way or another, all of the income earned by a corporation finds its way back to the people who financed it, whether...

When President Obama took office in 2009, the U.S. economy was in the midst of the Great Recession of 2008. Five and a half years later, that historic swoon remains his excuse for continued economic stagnation. Whoever or whatever is to blame, neither his efforts nor luck nor a natural rebound have managed to restore America's job market to what it was in better times. The July 3 jobs report was a reminder that the economy is at least creating jobs again, albeit at a rate that barely keeps up with population growth. And national and state unemployment rates have...

One thing we know about Mayor de Blasio is that he’s serious about creating affordable, quality housing for all New Yorkers. “This is literally the largest and most ambitious affordable-housing program initiated by any city in this country in the history of the United States of America,” de Blasio declared when he announced his “five-borough, 10-year plan” in May. “It is the largest, fastest affordable-housing plan ever attempted at a local level,” he added, vowing to “change the face of this city forever.” Hear that kids? Your rent worries will soon ease. Great news! I wonder if the new promise...

Initial Reaction On the surface, this appeared to be a very strong jobs report from both the household survey and establishment survey perspective. The establishment survey reported a gain of 288,000 jobs while the household survey sported a gain in employment of 407,000. In addition, May was revised up from +217,000 to + 224,000, and April revised up from +282,000 to +304,000. Digging deeper into the details, strength was entirely part-time (and then some). Voluntary part-time employment rose by a whopping 840,000 and involuntary part-time employment rose by 275,000. Compared to a total gain of employment of 407,000, the gain...

The headline of today’s jobs report, that 288,000 jobs were created in the last month, is positive. At least, it is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. However, as with most economic reports these days, there is a veneer of good news — but when you look closer, the White House is using the positive headlines to hide the growing deterioration of the American workforce. Last month, 523,000 full-time jobs were lost, while 799,000 part-time jobs were added. Another way of looking at these numbers is that almost all of the 288,000 jobs created last...

WASHINGTON - Republicans have a wealth of political issues that will dominate the 2014 midterm election races and determine their outcome. The national news media has done its best to try to bury these issues, play them down or sugar coat them, but the American people know better. They have persistently put these issues at or near the top of every voter poll in the last six years of Barack Obama's scandal-ridden, trouble-plagued administration. It's hard to break through and overcome the power of the Washington news media that has worked hard to cover up the Obama White House's blunders....

<p>For the past few years, it was like clockwork: A disappointing summer of job growth would give way to a much stronger winter. Economists would hesitantly forecast that the economy was about to kick into second gear. Then the summer would come and the disappointing data would return. But finally, looks like we're ready to break that trend: The economy added 288,000 jobs in June, soundly beating economists’ expectations of 211,000, and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent.</p>

Is this the reason for the blowout, on the surface, payroll number? In June the BLS reports that the number of full-time jobs tumbled by 523K to 118.2 million while part-time jobs soared by 799K to over 28 million!

IF ANYONE ought to appreciate the power of immigration to stimulate employment, it is America's energetic anti-immigration advocates, whose jobs wouldn't exist if it weren't for the influx of immigrants they spend their days seeking to curtail. Then again, appreciating anything about immigration — least of all the ironies of our endless debate on the subject — goes against the restrictionists' grain. Fulminating about immigrants is one of America's enduring pastimes, and it doesn't leave a lot of room for wry humor. Or for logical consistency. Which helps explain why immigrants can be depicted on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as...