Posted on 02/26/2015 6:41:32 AM PST by SeekAndFind
First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by much more than expected in the week ended February 21st, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.
The report said initial jobless claims jumped to 313,000, an increase of 31,000 from the previous week's revised level of 282,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to edge up to 290,000 from the 283,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also climbed to 294,500, an increase of 11,500 from the previous week's revised average of 283,000.
With the increase, the four-week moving average bounced well off the nearly four-month low set in the previous week.
Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell to 2.401 million in the week ended February 14th from the preceding week's revised level of 2.422 million.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims still rose to 2,399,000, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week's revised average of 2,397,250.
Next Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly employment report for February.
Just white noise...no need to get in a tizzy over a few thousand lost jobs. Supposedly there is enough great jobs to go around for everybody.
How many trace to Criminaliens who got work permits, started to work, but lost their job?
Uh-oh. I guess we can expect a rash of acts of violence to be perpetrated against random folks by vicious violent zealot extremist poopy-heads.
Next week they can add 1 more.
And the oil bust has just begun to be felt in the oil/gas producing states that have been the only bright spot in this lousy economy for the past six years. The unemployment numbers will be worse next month, if the price per barrel doesn’t improve dramatically.
Anyone who watches the economy couldn't have been surprised by this rise. There's no way that the 300,000 level is in the rear view mirror; we're going to continue to periodically re-visit this number going forward.
There are lots of reasons to be concerned about the anemic level of economic activity in this country, and around the world for that matter. Central planning may work in the short run, but it fails in the long term.
At best the recovery meme touted in the media is an exaggeration. At worst, its outright propaganda.
Remember the “Recovery Summer” meme pushed by the administration? That was back in 2010. Half a decade ago.
What would be “unexpected” would be if the media dropped all the cheerleading and actually started reporting the numbers straight up. It would also help if they would question the derivation, validity and accuracy of a lot of the “readings” reported by BLS.
Insightful post. That’s what the media SHOULD be reporting.
Interesting point. What IS the unemployment rate for wetbacks?
Someone needs to track that. We could decry the the plight of the unemployed wetbacks in America out of cynicism, but some liberals would probably call for unemployment benefits for them and some job training programs.
I applied for 3 jobs paying 80K apiece and got hired on the spot for each with a signing bonus!
Said no one ever.
I passed no fewer than SIX retail stores this morning with Help Wanted signs out (including an Aldi store that was touting a starting wage of $12.50 per hour).
My read....they are all rushing to cut back hours due to Obamacare, and thus have massive holes to fill in their schedules.
I want to know the unemp. rate not just for wetbacks, but for terrorists as well. Clearly, a high priority needs to be in place to make sure they all have jobs, don’t lose them, otherwise carry out acts of terrorism.
Correct me if I am wrong but don’t these numbers come on a 4 day week. Monday, the 16th, was President’s Day.
Shouldn’t it be “U S Weekly Potential Jihadi Recruit Numbers Rise Unexpectedly”?
It’s not just the job loses but the income lose from royalty checks.
A lot of people have overextended themselves with house, car, boat, and other loan payments based on royalty income.
Royalties cut by half or more and they wont be able to afford payments.
The Dow will hit new highs today...
“Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell to 2.401 million in the week ended February 14th from the preceding week’s revised level of 2.422 million.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims still rose to 2,399,000, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 2,397,250.”
Although, they emphasize the first time claims, this is the more important data point. It would be interesting to know at what end people are leaving the unemloyment roles, ie. those getting UI for just a couple of weeks vs those who have maxed out their benefits.
As to the second sentence, I was have drafted it as a statistically same numbers, not an increase. 1,750 is a rounding error.
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