[fhayek]

I question your upbeat assessment for jobless claims. The average, through all economies is 363,000, but that includes some nasty weeks in the 600,000's. I bet that the average weekly initial jobless claims in growing economies is considerably lower than that.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Well you can look at the chart:

At 334k it's on the low end of the range. Only a few times since the 1970's have dropped below 300K.

Some starts by president:

Obama's average(since January 2009) is 431,262 (low is 304,750, high is 660,250, media is 407,500)

W's average (Jan 2001 - Dec 2008) was 366,181 (low was 286,500, high was 564,000, median was 353,000)

Clinton's average was 328,568 (low was 266,520, high was 393,000, median was 330,625)

Reagan's average was 407,144 (low was 287,250, high was 674,250, median was 390,250)