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The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose modestly last week while revisions for prior weeks showed the labor market was much stronger than previously thought. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 265,000 for the week ended March 19, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's claims were revised to show 6,000 fewer applications received than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 268,000 in the latest week. The government also revised data going back to 2011, which showed claims trending lower than previously reported. Claims for...

WASHINGTON — Surprise: America's discouraged workers are finding jobs — or so it seems. Unanticipated by many economists, this is good news for the country (and, assuming it continues, probably for Democrats this fall). Ever since the Great Recession, economists have worried that the severity and length of the slump would forever consign many workers to the sidelines. Their prolonged disconnect from jobs would corrode their morale, contacts and job skills. For years, the numbers seemed to confirm these fears. The labor-force participation rate — the share of Americans 16 and over with a job or looking for one —...

Donald Trump seems quite certain that the real unemployment rate is higher than the 4.9 percent that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported it to be. A lot higher. "Don't believe these phony numbers when you hear 4.9 and 5 percent unemployment," Mr. Trump said in his victory speech after the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night. "The number's probably 28, 29, as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently 42 percent." Mr. Trump might be bombastic, but he's not entirely wrong. And the ways in which he is wrong are actually useful for anyone who wants to...

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but remained below levels associated with a healthy labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 284,000 for the week ended Jan. 9, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's claims were unrevised.Still, it was the 45th consecutive week that claims remained below the 300,000 mark, which is associated with strong labor market conditions. That is the longest such stretch since the early 1970s. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims slipping to 275,000 in the latest week. The increase...

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...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney/WIBW) -- There is good news, but there are still serious concerns because only 123,000 of those jobs were full time. Analysis will be found at the bottom of the story and in attached government reports. Officials claim that the U.S. economy added 295,000 jobs in February, which crushed expectations. That beat the estimate from CNNMoney's survey of economists, who predicted 235,000 job gains.

The latest jobs report showed the unemployment rate was at its lowest level in six years, 5.8 percent. But Americans aren't convinced that things are nearly that good. In a recent Ipsos-MORI poll, 1,001 Americans were asked, "Out of every 100 people of working age, how many do you think are unemployed and looking for work?" Their average response was 32. That's almost 26 percentage points higher than the 6.1-percent jobless rate in August, when the poll was conducted. Americans are way, way off here. But they aren't alone. Here's how other countries' average estimated unemployment rates stack up to...

<p>The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose less than expected last week, suggesting an acceleration in job growth in September.</p> <p>Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 293,000 for the week ended Sept.20, the Labor Department said on Thursday.</p>

The unemployment rate has (once again) disappointed. The problem people, is that America continues to export jobs. Not goods. Jobs.

If unemployment benefits were cut off earlier in 2013, the long-term unemployed would have been more likely to be re-employed, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. If the benefits, called the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, expired earlier in 2013, “workers with 46 or more weeks of continuous unemployment would have been 1.2 to 2.1 percentage points more likely to become re-employed,” the St. Louis Fed reported. “Similarly, the long-term unemployed would have been 0.4 to 0.5 percentage points more likely to exit the labor force entirely.”

Economists in a consensus survey expected weekly initial jobless claims to dip by 2,000 to 310,000. ( full story here http://www.cnbc.com/id/101753584 )

Once upon a time in America, grown men were expected to work a job, women were expected to stay home with the kids, and families were expected to cover expenses with their own earnings. There was no welfare state to step in for the unfortunate, or the feckless. This was the land for which the "unemployment rate" was invented. The "unemployment rate" was a pretty good tool for measuring the problem of workless-ness in that long-forgotten America. But we don't live in that country any more. Consequently, our old-fashioned "unemployment rate" has become an increasingly inaccurate barometer for measuring the...

Not only can the nation’s unemployment rate be manipulated, it is easy to do. And it wouldn’t take a team of conspirators, as a federal investigator alleged, to accomplish that feat. In its report last week, the Commerce Department Inspector General’s office said it found no attempt to manipulate the unemployment statistics during the last presidential election, when the jobless rate suddenly fell sharply. The IG’s most important point: the jobless rate couldn’t be rigged even if someone wanted to because too many people would have to be involved. Let me give you the exact statement from the report: “Addressing...

WASHINGTON - The news is filled with bleak reports that continue to cast a pall of gloom over many Americans who say life for them is a daily struggle. Two deeply troubling stories appearing in the papers this week were typical of the growing problems that afflict so many Americans in a still very weak, job-deficient, low-paying economy. A front page story in The Washington Post under the headline, "A choice between buying books and eating," reports that "more college students are going hungry." "The number of food pantries on college campuses has increased rapidly in the past six years...

<p>The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose less than expected last week, pointing to some underlying strength in the labor market.</p> <p>Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 320,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the week ended March 8 were unrevised.</p>

So far in 2014, initial unemployment claims have been largely stuck, though we were supposed to see some progress this morning. According to the new figures from the Labor Department, we didn’t: The number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits jumped by 14,000 to 348,000 last week to match a five-week high, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected claims to total 335,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis. The average of new claims over the past month, a more reliable gauge than the volatile weekly number, was unchanged at 338,250.

Yes, I suppose it’s true that most of the rest of the world works a lot less than Americans do. Their GDPs-per-capita and/or their debt-to-GDP ratios generally tend to correlate accordingly, but whatever. Via RCP:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO What the Congressional Budget Office is saying is that we’re going to discourage kids having to have latchkeys. We’re going to have parents being able to come home, working reasonable hours. People are going to be able to retire. People might be able to actually cook dinner rather than have to order out and get some takeout. I mean, the...

1,154,000 fewer Americans are working today than six years ago, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In January 2008, 146,378,000 Americans 16 and over were employed, and now in January 2014, 145,224,000 are employed, a difference of 1,154,000.

<p>U.S. equity markets zipped higher Friday after a round of weak jobs data inspired hopes the Fed may take more time to boost rates and cut its bond-purchasing program.</p> <p>As of 9:32 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 53.3 points, or 0.35%, to 15675, the S&P 500 gained 8.5 points, or 0.48%, to 1783 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 28.4 points, or 0.69%, to 4084.</p>

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, in a boost to the labor market outlook and the broader economy. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 331,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 3,000 more applications received than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast first-time applications for jobless benefits falling to 335,000 in the week ended Feb. 1. The four-week moving average for new claims, considered a better measure of underlying labor market conditions as...