Posted on 09/03/2015 6:47:36 AM PDT by mykroar
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of Americans who sought unemployment benefits at the end of August rose to a two-month high, but so-called initial claims are still at very low levels that suggest a low rate of layoffs in the economy.
Initial jobless claims in the period running from Aug. 23 to Aug. 29 rose by 12,000 to 282,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the highest level since the end of June.
Still, new claims have been under the key 300,000 level for the past six months, the longest streak since 2000.
The average of new claims over the past month rose by 3,250 to 275,500, the government said. The four-week average smooths out sharp fluctuations in the more volatile weekly report and is seen as a more accurate predictor of labor-market trends.
The U.S. has added an average of 215,000 new jobs a month this year and economists predict a solid 213,000 increase in August. The government will release last month’s employment report on Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Noone left to layoff.
Make sure to include the jobless that are no longer looking for employment. (That will be the day since that will give you a much more ACCURATE figure of unemployment). Where are we really now -— about 8% or so??
We'll see...............
I believe the actual number is probably closer to 15%. And, there are those of us that got laid off and retired and, even though not really seeking employment, could have gotten the benefits had we so chosen. Not to mention that there ARE jobs out there. I’ve been offered jobs even though I didn’t ask about one at a lot of places. Mrs. rktman too.
Unexpected
While the media focuses on this volitle weekly number, the more important number is the contiuing clims which this article noted at the end.
“Meanwhile, continuing jobless claims fell by 9,000 to 2.26 million in the week ended Aug. 22. These claims, reported with a two-week lag, reflect the number of people already receiving unemployment checks.”
The DOJ press release that the article is based on notes this:
“The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending August 15 was 2,210,203, an increase of 3,050 from the previous week. There were 2,457,641 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2014.
No state was triggered “on” the Extended Benefits program during the week ending August 15.”
I think that continuing claims being down by 200,000 year to year is a far bigger story.
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