Today's Jobless Claims Spotlight Increasing Unemployment
Americans continue to lose jobs in the Great Correction. A slight improvement showed up in ongoing jobless benefits claims, which fell to only 4,625,000, but even that is likely attributable to those people who have been unemployed for so long that their benefits have simply run out.
On the other hand, new jobless claims show no redeeming qualities whatsoever and, like the four-week average, are moving higher. Worse still… the pace of job losses has increased.
From the Financial Times:
“Initial jobless claims climbed by 25,000 to 471,000 last week, labour department figures showed on Thursday. Filings had been trending lower in the last month and economists were surprised by the increase in claims.
“In spite of recent signs of improvement in the labour market, jobless claims remain stubbornly high. The four-week average of new jobless claims is up by 3,000 to 453,500.
“However, the number of Americans continuing to claim jobless benefits fell back slightly, dipping by 40,000 to 4.625m. Analysts attribute this decline to a mix of workers finding jobs and the long-term unemployed seeing their benefits expire.
“Economists have been perplexed by persistently high levels of jobless claims, arguing that they need to fall to the low 400,000 level before the US economy can sustain consistent job creation.”
The article notes that the soft jobs data is going to do little to calm skittish markets that continue to tumble. While government intervention has been stifling the creative destruction that should be preparing the US economy for the future, it sure hasn’t managed to curb ongoing job losses.
To read more visit the FT’s coverage of US jobless claims recording a surprise jump.
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