First-time claims for jobless benefits fell last week, hitting the lowest level we've seen since January. The U.S. Department of Labor pegged the number at 521,000. This is down from the previous week's 554,000 (which had been revised upward). Wall Street economists anticipated 540,000. Claims of this type have fallen four times in five weeks, and the four-week average reached 539,750 – its lowest level since January 17, 2009.
In general, first-time claims for unemployment benefits have been declining since the spring, though slowly. Unfortunately, they still remain well above the 325,000 that economists claim to be indicative of a healthy economy.
The total number of people receiving unemployment benefits fell 72,000 to 6.04 million. The number might be lower if Congress had not added up to 53 weeks of unemployment benefit to the original 26 weeks that states provide. The addition of another 13 weeks is being considered.
The jobless rate and number of people collecting unemployment benefits are tempting stats to which to assign recovery hopes... but that probably isn't a good idea. We're likely to see a jobless recovery from this recession (with hefty doses of temp and contract work), which means a change in the job market will only confirm already good news.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-09-2009 @ 5:53PM
Iridium said...
Can we put this BS stat to bed already. WE STILL HAVE OVER 500K unemployment claims every week. This has been going on for a very long time. THERE IS NO RECOVERY BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE STILL BEING FIRED LEFT AND RIGHT!!!
Sure jobless claims have fallen from their peak but they are still extraordinarily high. How many more weeks and months of this can we have before you finance people get it???
People that were making $75k a year can't find another $75k job and in fact most have been looking for 6 months to a year or more. They have resorted to getting a $10 an hour job at Home Depot.
We can also call an end to the theory that the Stock Market looks 6 months ahead. The six month point of the major leg of the rally came and went with no signs of real improvement in corporate profits. Certainly not the 6 fold increase some of the latest stock valuations would lead you to believe.
Corporations were only able to break expectations through massive cost cutting. If they did hire back even 50% of the workers they fired, profits would drop far below estimates. Without a growth engine to jumpstart spending there will be no uptick in top end profits and therefore no ability to hire more workers.
The excessive run up in the stock market was fueled by government money and government money only. At some point this orgy of self indulgence has to end. At some point Wall Street needs to wake up and realize that they shot so far past the mark that they may never be able to right the course. We are heading to unprecedented debt, unprecedented unemployment, and unprecedented power of the US government. None of which is good.
10-09-2009 @ 7:50PM
cindyh2009 said...
That's only because peoples unemployment benefits are running out, not because people are back to work. Idiots!!
10-10-2009 @ 4:34AM
rosebelle28 said...
I agree with Cindyh2009, the number is declining because people who filed more than a year ago probably exhausted their unemployement claim. I was laid off in March of this year and my 6 months unemployment claim is over and I am on extension right now. The job market looks gloomy out there and there is a lot of competition too.