The Labor Department has just reported its weekly jobless claims data. The new preliminary report puts last week’s initial jobless claims at 502,000, down 12,000 on an adjusted basis from the week before. Bloomberg had an open estimate of 512,000. This is one of the lowest readings for 2009, but this figure will actually have to get under 400,000 or a tad higher before it starts halting the rise in unemployment. The army of the unemployed is getting smaller on an official basis as it fell an adjusted 139,000 to 5,631,000.
This won’t halt the rise in unemployment from getting higher than 10.2%, but it is at least getting less bad.
JON C. OGG
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