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Is the unemployment picture getting any better? The truth is that's its hard to tell. The Labor Department said that initial claims for state unemployment insurance rose 3,000 to 608,000. The expected number was 600,000. This is especially disturbing since this is the time of year when most hiring in done, mainly in the construction trades.
However, there is some good news. Continued claims for unemployment (those persons already on the rolls) fell by 148,000 to 6.69 million. This was the lowest level since May 9, as well as the largest one-week drop since November 2001. This indicates that persons already on the rolls are finding work, and that's good news.
Another good sign is that the four-week average of new claims, which smooths out the numbers, dipped to 615,750, the lowest level since February 14.
Overall, however, the unemployment situation still remains bleak. If you look closely at these numbers, we have 608,000 new claims and only 148,000 coming off the rolls, and the total number unemployed is approaching 7 million. In order to raise a loud cheer, we should see the number of unemployed coming off the rolls greater than the new claims being filed.
Do you believe that the unemployment picture will improve in the coming months?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-18-2009 @ 12:45PM
Irish said...
"This indicates that persons already on the rolls are finding work, and that's good news."
BULL! This indicates that there are many who RAN OUT OF UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS!!!!! If intial claims are rising, then the chances of these people who are no longer collecting didn't find work either!
WHAT A FRICKEN WAY to spin this news.
6-18-2009 @ 1:54PM
Mike said...
Agreed. When Bush was in office and we had 6% unemployment, all we heard from the media was stories about the underemployed, software engineers working at Burger King, et al., them trying to portray us in bad times under Bush. And now that things are really bad... we're hearing good news.
The media is a joke.