Back to More Pain in Jobless Claims and Employment

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By Trey Thoelcke Published
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The hope that the weekly jobless claims picture was getting better after last week’s surprise drop is being squashed. The Labor Department reported that weekly jobless claims rose back up into the danger zone this past week with a gain of 34,000 to 386,000. Bloomberg had estimates of 365,000 and the highest economist projection was 375,000. Today’s news represents the largest one-week gain in over a year, which just proves that the prior week’s reading was an aberration.

The prior week’s report also was revised higher by 2,000 to 352,000. The four-week average fell by 1,500 to 375,500. Another measurement of the continuing claims, the army of unemployed taking benefits for more than one-week, rose by 1,000 to 3.314 million.

Last week brought some hope that the layoffs were abating, but we suspected that the Fourth of July falling on a Wednesday played a huge role in the report. It is only that much more evident now. Back to more pain …

Layoffs are going to continue, and there seems little reason to see the unemployment rate improving from 8.2%.

JON C. OGG

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About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.

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