The Labor Department is out with its latest round of weekly jobless claims. It is uglier than a hat full of toes and fingers. The new figure was 500,000 for the most recent weak, a move that is not just going back in the wrong direction. This will make the unemployment reading even worse if it is sustained. Bloomberg had consensus data from economists looking for an implied drop of 4,000 to 480,000 new claims.
The data from last week was revised to an even worse 488,000 versus an initial read of a gain of 2,000 to 484,000. That was already the highest reading in months. Now we are back to having a 500,000 handle rather than a 400,000 handle.
The four-week average, which aims to smooth out the one-week issues, came to a gain of 8,000 to 482,500 after being at 473,500 on a preliminary basis last week.
The army of unemployed, measured by the continuing claims was reported as a drop of 13,000 to 4,478,000 million this week. Continuing claims did fall by 118,000 last week to 4,452,000 on a preliminary unrevised basis. The problem is that the revised level was 4,491,000, so that drop is misleading.
Last week’s statement still stands. “The beatings will continue whether morale improves or not.” The arguments for the case of a double-dip recession will have a stronger voice than the slow recovery crowd today.
JON C. OGG
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