Posted on 08/07/2014 6:33:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more than expected, fuelling optimism over the strength of the labor market, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending August 2 decreased by 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 289,000 from the previous weeks total of 303,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 305,000 last week.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended July 26 fell to 2.518 million from 2.542 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to fall to 2.512 million.
The four-week moving average was 293,500, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous weeks total of 297,500.
(Excerpt) Read more at investing.com ...
thanks
yeah ... hardly anyone left to apply basically...
The problem is the number they consider working. BLS counts two people as having a job if a single person has two part-time jobs. So, that chart is useless.
I want a single number of individuals, identified uniquely by SSN, that have full-time salaried, full-time hourly, and less than full-time positions.
That they have but will not report.
I think CodeToad is talking about total labor participation and while you are talking about the marginal jobless market. CodeToad may very well be talking from a squeezed middle class citizen's point of view. You may be talking from a trader trading around government stats for the day.
We know that the median income had decreased significantly over the past six years. And we know that the median wealth of the average citizen has decreased by tens of thousands in the last decade. Both your posts are interesting in light of this post.
More Bad News for the Middle Class and Their Health Care
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3190003/posts
In the hospitals, we see the consequences. While the poor and the illegal immigrants get absolutely free care, the middle-class patients are collapsing financially under the strain of their deductibles and their lost income from their time off work, not to mention the additional stress of their illness. In our clinics, sick patients are choosing to forego testing, medicines, and surgery that they need solely because of cost. Instead they are living with their illnesses, often with cheap antibiotics as a means of delaying the inevitable.
To make matters worse, the patients getting their health care for free will ask for taxi vouchers, food stipends, and the like right in front of these other people, never thinking that what they are requesting is an affront to the sensibilities of the people paying their bills with our tax dollars. Seeing the middle class visibly suffer like this when the president told them during the elections that they would see their costs go down $2,500 per family is a heinous outcome of a preposterous government overreach.
That “$2,500” lie is costing people big time. People do not read the fine print on their ObamaCare insurance policies. They fail to see the $5,100 deductible or know what they mean. Once guy at work was bragging that without ObamaCare he would not have insurance. When told of his high deductible he scoffed, but when he used the policy he found out the hard way that he has to pay 100% of the bill because he had not met the “family deductible” of $7,600.
“...because he had not met the family deductible of $7,600.”
Our family deductible is $10,000. It used to be $7,500. But, I was also paying $800 a month less for my “catastrophic” plan with the “high” $7,500 deductible.
On the bright side, I my wife could save $7 a month on birth-control pills. Although nature has already taken its course.
I don’t have that number sorry.
Here is the definition of what is in the chart:
All Employees: Total Nonfarm, commonly known as Total Nonfarm Payroll, is a measure of the number of U.S. workers in the economy that excludes proprietors, private household employees, unpaid volunteers, farm employees, and the unincorporated self-employed. This measure accounts for approximately 80 percent of the workers who contribute to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This measure provides useful insights into the current economic situation because it can represent the number of jobs added or lost in an economy. Increases in employment might indicate that businesses are hiring which might also suggest that businesses are growing. Additionally, those who are newly employed have increased their personal incomes, which means (all else constant) their disposable incomes have also increased, thus fostering further economic expansion. Generally, the U.S. labor force and levels of employment and unemployment are subject to fluctuations due to seasonal changes in weather, major holidays, and the opening and closing of schools. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) adjusts the data to offset the seasonal effects to show non-seasonal changes: for example, women’s participation in the labor force; or a general decline in the number of employees, a possible indication of a downturn in the economy. To closely examine seasonal and non-seasonal changes, the BLS releases two monthly statistical measures: the seasonally adjusted All Employees: Total Nonfarm (PAYEMS) and All Employees: Total Nonfarm (PAYNSA), which is not seasonally adjusted.
OF course you don’t. I don’t, either, no individual does. However, the government most assuredly does. The IRS has the numbers as they get monthly, quarterly, and annual tax payments. They could easily tell us how many people have reported income.
Wyatt’s Torch , Is the chart in post 29, just the normal unemployment claims or does it include the extended claims program, which would certainly skew the recession results?
Good question. The notes on the FRED site simply says: “Insured unemployment is the number of people receiving unemployment benefits.”
I’m not exactly sure what is counted. If I have time today I’ll try and go to the source website and find out.
Praise be Barack Obama (peas be upon him).
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