Posted on 05/12/2011 6:46:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Applications in the U.S. for unemployment compensation fell by 44,000 last week to 434,000, partly reversing a large spike earlier in April, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected applications for jobless benefits to decline to seasonally adjusted 428,000 from an upwardly revised 478,000 in the prior week. The average of new claims over the past four weeks rose by 4,500 to 436,750, the highest level since November.
The four-week average is considered more accurate a gauge of employment trends because it lessens week-to-week volatility in the data. Meanwhile, the number of workers who continue to receive state compensation increased by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.76 million in the week of April 30. Altogether, 7.98 million people received some kind of state or federal benefit in the week of April 23, down 31,247 from the prior week. It's the first time in several years the number has fallen below 8 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
” expected applications for jobless benefits to decline to seasonally adjusted 428,000 from an upwardly revised 478,000 in the prior week. “
Is there a word for “beyond ludicrous”??
Anything over 400K is awful. And once again, the prior week’s number was revised upward (by 4,000), just as this week’s number will be revised upward next week, guaranteed. The results would be far worse if increasing numbers of long-term unemployed weren’t falling off the rolls every week.
More Enron-style bookkeeping.....=.=
That will be great news to the entire department laid off at my former employer on Tuesday! They are down to about 30 people from the over 150 we had at our branch office two years ago.
AP - The number of people receiving unemployment benefits edged up by 5,000 to 3.8 million, the department said. But that doesn’t include millions of additional people receiving emergency benefits under an extended benefits program put in place during the recession. All told, just under 8 million people received unemployment benefits in the week ending April 23, the most recent data available.
Sorry read that as “down to about 30.”
It looks like the guy who didn’t “seasonally adjust” the numbers last week to show claims and unemployment dropping is no longer allowed to manipulate tha data.
RE: Is there a word for “beyond ludicrous”??
Yes, it’s a word business journalists have been using for the past 2 years when it comes to initial jobless claims or unemployment —— “UNEXPECTEDLY”.
So...they seasonally adjust in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.
What’s left for a ‘normal’ set of unjiggered statistics?
still one to two hundred thousand more than they should be.
That’s new unemployment claims just last week. I believe 300 thousand was the average during GW Bush’s period of great, nearly-full employment. There are always people coming and going from jobs.
Year 3 of Obama... and Unemployment claims up. Gas up. Food up. Real Estate down.
Yet the media pretends Obama is loved with a 60% approval. LOL!
Have they raised the “robust jobs growth” benchmark to 500K yet? Back during the Bush Administration, it was 300K. Most recently, I read 400K.
Nothing like moving the goalposts.
It is again consistently over 400k.
Those two to three times that it dipped under 400k were apparently flukes.
You forgot misery index up.
Hurry up, someone come tell Florida.
A friend just told me yesterday, if things don’t turn around in a few weeks, he’s going under. And he employs a lot of people. He also had to drop everyone’s health insurance, which is deadly to a few employees he has.
The moving average is an important number to keep an eye on,a dn that has been rising, but do not expect to hear that from the media.
Is there an ObamaMiseryIndex.com?
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