[Roccus]

Thursday initial claim numbers are for the preceding week. Monthly numbers come out on the first or second Friday of the following month. It is claimed that 400K/wk is the break-even point between new jobs and initial claims. 'Twasn't all that long ago that number was 325-350K/wk.

[RandallFlagg]

Why can’t the enemedia simply say these stories with a single sentence?
“418,000 People lost their jobs this week.”

[xzins]

The numbers say that the Bush era, with 5% unemployment, is really the break even point. It averaged in the neighborhood of 250-300 thousand job changers every week and the 5% number, plus or minus, stayed fairly steady.

400 thousand is also a relatively new number. In the past it was claimed to be at 350,000. My guess is that 350k will give you an unemployment rate around 7%, which is no where near full employment.

That’s why the UE rate is 9.2% and the real UE number is above 16%. The conventional wisdom is ignoring the reality of numbers when the economy was good.