US Jobless Claims Rise 16K To 357,000

NASDAQ ^ | 03/28/2013 | Andrew Ackerman and Josh Mitchell

[SeekAndFind]

WASHINGTON--The number of Americans claiming first-time unemployment benefits rose for the second week in a row, a possible sign that the labor market lost a bit of momentum.

Initial jobless claims, an indication of layoffs, increased by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 357,000 in the week ended March 23, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was above economists' forecast of 340,000 new claims.

The latest week's gain came after claims rose 7,000 to a revised 341,000 in the week ended March 16.

The four-week moving average, which smoothes out week-to-week volatility in the data, rose by 2,250 to 343,000. Even with the slight rise, the level remains below the 400,000 that economists believe is the threshold indicating a strengthening labor market.

The labor market generally has picked up since the new year. Unemployment fell to 7.7% in February from 7.9% the prior month, with employers adding 236,000 jobs last month.

Still, unemployment remains historically high, and Federal Reserve officials expect only slight improvement in the labor market for the rest of the year. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last week described the recent improvement in the labor market as modest. Fed officials signaled they don't plan to end the central bank's stimulus programs, including $85 billion a month in bond purchases, any time soon.

The labor market is also facing headwinds, including the roughly $85 billion in federal spending cuts, under the so- called sequester, that began this month.

Thursday's data showed the number of continuing unemployment benefit claims--those drawn by workers for more than a week--decreased by 27,000 to 3,050,000 in the week ended March 16. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.

[Walt Griffith]

W.F. moves 30 $28.00 per hr. jobs from Mini., Mn. to S.A., TX. @ $12.00. You now have 30 new employees to report, until next week when the Mini., Mn. report shows up, but even then you have no decrease in employment. Everything is just fine. Profits are up. How many companies do this every week? Political donations are up. Everything is ok.

Enjoy! Your C.C. and Government working hand in hand.

You have the right to continue voting just like you did the last time. Don’t forget the business after hours Wednesday.

[concerned about politics]

We have been sending US jobs overseas for now 30 years.

I can understand why. We have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. We also have unions with an instatiable appetite for freebies. Add massive regulations and PC mind control laws to the mix, and it's a recipe for disaster.
Who in their right mind would want to build industries or businesses here when they can go anywhere in the world and actually be welcomed?

[RipSawyer]

Everything is looking great, we just heard that my area is getting a new business to occupy the building where a plant shut down. The new business will be packaging Cambodian rice, glory, glory, glory! No, I didn’t make it up we are going from manufacturing to packaging imported rice.

[Wyatt's Torch]

I pull these charts from the St. Louis Federal Reserve site which is the Fed's data warehouse also known as FRED. http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/ Claims and workforce participation are different sets of data and while related don't necessarily have that much to do with each other. The workforce participation issue is contentious because of the aging baby boomer population which has started to retire. Most people yell that the rate is collapsing but fail to mention that it has been significantly lower than this before:

The Baby Boomers are what fueled the massive growth in labor force participation which began in the 1960's as they started getting out of college. Now, 50 years later, they are starting to retire. What will be interesting to see is how the Millennial cohort (bigger than Baby Boomers and twice as big as Gen X) will impact the participation rate going forward. In some instances you have baby Boomers that are postponing retirement until later which squeezes out younger workers from taking their place. this will be interesting to watch.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Well, you stated related to claims that “You need to get to about 160,000 to see any significant growth in the economy or a stabilizing labor market.” That hasn’t happened ever so that statement is invalid. The statements on this thread that the employment situation is not improving are inaccurate as claims are actually below normal as defined by a long-run average.

[Uncle Miltie]

You have Cringing Negativism down to a science.

[Uncle Miltie]

Can I offer you a job?

[Uncle Miltie]

"Still, unemployment remains historically high, and Federal Reserve officials expect only slight improvement in the labor market for the rest of the year. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last week described the recent improvement in the labor market as modest. Fed officials signaled they don't plan to end the central bank's stimulus programs, including $85 billion a month in bond purchases, any time soon."

[Go Gordon]

RE: Stop sending US jobs overseas, especially stop sending US jobs to China. How do we outlaw that?

Stop taxing corporations out the ying-yang. Stop the governmental regulations out the butt. And lst, but not least, let the market dictate wages and benefits, not unions and governments.

[bluecat6]

“Even with the slight rise, the level remains below the 400,000 that economists believe is the threshold indicating a strengthening labor market.”

400,000????

That number used to be 350,000. Then it was 375,000. Now 400,000?

Talk about changing the bar.

[reed13k]

That’s an interesting take I was thinking it was driven by increased female participation during the same timeframe.

[jdsteel]

Can I offer you a job?

A JOB??? Uh, well, thanks for the offer, comrade, but, uh, as you may know being a revolutionary is a full time job. I have to spend all of my time blogging for my fearless leader and...Mom, I can't talk now, I'm posting on the internet... sorry about that. Anyway, I tend to look at my revolutionary status as a lifestyle anyway, as "jobs" are so capitalist sounding.

[Wyatt's Torch]

You are correct that women are participating at a higher rate as well and it pretty well follows the same pattern.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Interestingly the participation rate for men has been declining for decades so perhaps you are correct. Couple the increase in women participation rate with baby boomers retiring and you have the employment situation we are in now.

[dfwgator]

This was expected, right?

[Count of Monte Fisto]

The trend of lower manufacturing jobs has been going on for decades now thanks to productivity improvements.

BS. The manufacturing jobs have been moved to Red China. There are more people in the Red Chinese manufacturing sector then there are in our entire workforce. And Red China makes all the latest high tech products using the latest manufacturing processes.

Our government can force the US Corporations that moved their operations to Red China to move them back here simply by taxing them into oblivion if they fail to comply. American Corporations that want to do business inside the US should not be allowed put American out of work to take advantage of cheap Third World labor.

Free Trade Communists have absolutely ruined this country.

[cherokee1]

Can someone find for me just one, ONE, of these genius economists who believe that progress is being made when layoffs are constantly, perenially, higher than new hires? Layoffs have been between 300 and 400 K / month for years but new hires have held in the 100K zone for less than that. The numbers are misrepresented by Obamafan propagandists, trying to “talk a good story” and there is just no other real explanation for this commiekrap.

[Uncle Miltie]

Well, let me know if you ever make it out of the basement. Say “HI!” to your mom for me, and let her know I’ll be at the Motel 6 at the usual time.

;-)

[Fightin Whitey]

I strongly support making all Americans healthy and wealthy.

You or I won't "make" Americans anything.

The optimum outcome would be getting enough government out of the way to allow Americans to make something of themselves.

If you want to start taxing imports, or penalizing companies that do business overseas, or penalizing the successful in general, then you ought to start sending your little exhortations (Bring back American jobs!) to the Obama administration.

They think along the same lines you do.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Manufacturing jobs have been declining for decades (fact).

Manufacturing output as a percent of GDP has remained stable (another fact)

The definition of productivity output per unit of labor.

Therefore productivity has been improving over that timeframe.