The weekly jobless claims data from the Labor Department managed to show a positive trend this morning. Claims actually fell by 21,000 down to 434,000 for the week. Bloomberg had consensus at 455,000. This was a week that had no special circumstances or seasonal factors for the week which would have skewed the data, and it actually appears to be a 3-month low.
The army of the unemployed, measured by the continuing jobless claims, fell by 122,000 to a 4.356 million. This figure appears to be a low for 2010.
This is far from a recovery level and this is still not enough to help that unemployment rate, but it is at least a move in the right direction.
JON C. OGG