For the love of all that is good in this world, people need to STOP commenting on these reports when they don't understand them. Just stop it.
Yes, this is the new weekly claims for unemployment. There is ALWAYS thousands upon thousands of new weekly claims for unemployment - even in a great economy. It is a very big country with a LOT of activity and thousands of people will always being laid off each week and thousands of others will be finding employment each week. This report only shows the number of new claims, it is not a net job report, it does not tell you how many people found work.
New claims between 375k - 400k probably indicate a very slowly improving employment picture. That is why the media is always so excited about the "green shoot" potential of an under 400k number. If the new claims get under 375k to around 350k that would mean we are moving towards a healthier labor market.
The weekly unemployment claims report and the monthly jobs report(s) are not the same thing. The former represents new unemployment claims (which will always appear staggeringly high if you don't understand what the numbers mean), the latter represents NET job gains or losses plus a household survey.
Today's report is fairly decent news. Going on several weeks now the new unemployment claims report numbers have been falling steadily. The previous weeks numbers have been revised up regularly, but that is not unusual and the trend is still going in the right direction. The employment picture seems to be improving modestly. At this rate we will see the unemployment rate likely continue ticking down.
A Labor Department official said a freak fall snowstorm that kept many people housebound in the Northeast did not affect initial jobless claims.
Um....Whatever.......
Killjoy.