Posted on 10/15/2009 6:13:56 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
WASHINGTON -- The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment insurance has fallen to the lowest level since early January, a sign the labor market is slowly improving.
The Labor Department said Thursday that first-time claims for jobless benefits dropped to a seasonally-adjusted 514,000 from an upwardly revised 524,000 the previous week. The fifth decline in six weeks was below Wall Street economists' forecasts of 525,000, according to Thomson Reuters.
The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, fell for the sixth straight time to 531,500.
Economists closely watch initial claims, which are considered a measure of layoffs and the willingness of companies to add jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Whatever. It's not IMPROVING. The first wave of hemorrhaging may have slowed, but we're still bleeding to death.
At this better than expected rate of job loss, there will be nobody working in entire country in a little over 3 1/2 years.
Prayers up for you and your family. Let us know if we can do anything to help, short of sending money of course, because none of us have any...and the Bush Tax Cuts haven’t even expired yet, LOL!
Thank you.
My severance package gave me a nice cushion to help soften the blow. Hopefully the FT jobs will come back. Right now, there are few FT jobs with benefits......most are PT.
*SIGH* My son got laid off yesterday from TDS, a local cable/internet company. He sort of saw it coming, but it still hurts and sets him back as far as finishing college on time, etc.
Anyhow, my husband is an IT Guru and has his own business which is doing well because while people aren’t buying new systems, they’re VERY interested in making the most of what they already own...and he makes better money on service versus sales. Sonny can work for Dad for a while to tide him over.
Am I a Bad Mom for hoping he doesn’t want to move back home? I really love my Sewing Room which was his old bedroom, LOL!
Sorry to hear about your son....seems as though everyone knows someone (or many!) who have been laid off.
And yet all we hear is how the economy is improving.
It is getting worse, but the good news is that it is getting worse slower than expected.
We’re laying off a bunch of seasonal workers at the garden center next week. They knew it was seasonal work, but a few haven’t seemed to make any plans beyond next week. None of them want to sell Christmas Trees for me, though it has been offered. (I’m going to ask my son if he wants some hourly cash and tips, so that’s a little something for him.)
We can’t afford to keep them, nor could we justify the cost for our v-e-r-y s-l-o-w winter months. Four people a day and a cashier can run our shop for the months of January and February and most of March.
Wanna come sell Christmas Trees for me? It’s actually pretty much fun. We keep a bonfire going and sometimes slip a little schnaaps into our hot cocoa. ;)
Ah well, excellent point.
Of course, I also wasn’t referring to somebody that switches jobs within the same company etc. I would be willing to do that, just not do the same exact thing for 20 years.
Most young people today don’t want to either.
But, working for your own company....that’s different. You’re the boss.
It is the economists who are incompetent. Their models of the macroeconomics of the economy are simply broken, and they refuse to admit it.
I’m not saying that this administration is competent, BTW - just that the “expectation” was on the part of economists (within and outside the administration), not political hacks.
Because in 08 he had to file,he used up all of that . Then thankfully he returned to work in January. So we thought we were covered when he did his 6 mos. Evidently that was not long enough and he had to wait until October to qualify again.
This year is not as bad. We saved a good bit of our tax return and were able to coast until now.
re: a sign the labor market is slowly improving
No it’s not. It’s a sign that it’s not worsening as fast as it was. Lack of worsening is not, by definition, improving.
And besides that, it’s an editorial comment and has no place in a news article.
Like another poster said, get back to me when jobs are being added!
More unexpected job loss ... blah blah blah ... heard this 2 weeks ago ...
But regardless ... it still equals jobs being lost and not replaced ... This has become EXPECTED from the idiot politicians in the country... And the real Unemployment rate including part time workers is way higher ... [BEGIN RANTING AND RAVING]
And this is the reason why the government is paying so much unemployment ... When the # of jobs continues to decrease without adding additional jobs ... people have no where to work ...
So tell me why again is "Don't Ask Dont Tell" or "Health Care Reform" more important than getting people to work again.
Priorities... [/END RANTING AND RAVING]
I would SO do that Diana, but Wisconsin is a bit too far from S Florida to commute LOL! I love schnapps ;)
You probably don’t have enough warm clothes to make it through our winter either, LOL!
I did a winter in MI, and grew up in NJ, so cold is no stranger ( I really miss it actually). But, you are right, I left my coat on the other side of the mason dixon line LOL.
HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN - Champagne corks fly!
That was my thought, too.
Well the labor pool expectedly has been going down so the ratio must be worse than unexpected. The expected the expectations to be better.
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