Posted on 05/10/2012 6:30:42 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
New claims for unemployment benefits in the United States unexpectedly edged down last week, according to government data Thursday, and the decline could ease some concerns that the labor market was deteriorating after April's weak employment growth.
Separately, the government said the United States trade deficit widened more than expected in March.
Initial claims for state jobless benefits slipped 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 367,000, the Labor Department said. The prior week's figure was revised up to 368,000 from the previously reported 365,000.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims inching up to 369,000 last week. The four-week moving average for new claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends, fell 5,250 to 379,000.
Coming on the heels of April's sluggish employment gains, the claims data could calm fears the labor market was stagnating. Companies added a meager 115,000 new jobs to their payrolls in April, the fewest in six months, the government reported last Friday.
Most economists have viewed the pullback in job creation as fallout of the weather-induced gains in the previous months and believe the underlying pace of payrolls growth is around 175,000 — the monthly average for the past three months.
Even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke last month said an unseasonably warm winter had probably brought forward some of the hiring by companies, artificially boosting payrolls in January and February.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
My understanding is that the numbers have been “revised” every single week for the last year and they were revised UPWARD in 53 out of 54 weeks.
Of course, that info is always buried somewhere in the third or fourth paragraph after the headline touts that the number dropped from the previous week.
It’s all smoke and mirrors and the RINO in DC won’t address it - they should be running ads and giving interviews every single week with charts showing how the numbers are manipulated.
Jobless claims fall this week, until the BLS can figure out how much they have to be revised upwards later so that when jobless claims are next announced they will fall as well (until they have to be revised upward enough so that the next set of jobless claims will indicate a fall . . .)
Rinse and repeat as needed.
You deserve a ping for your post. Look at what you buy, see where it is made and you will understand why employment is not coming back. Both parties are to blame. We have to wait for matters to get worse before there is another Ross Perot who hears the job sucking sound produced by government to government unbalanced trade deals.
I read an article on Freep yesterday stating that they re-re-adjusted 2012 Q1 economic growth down from 2.2% to 1.9%. Apparently 0.3% of the “growth” was inventory growth. What a crock!
Latest Reuters first paragraph about the DJIA being up 50:
Global stocks rose for the first time in seven sessions on Thursday after relatively encouraging U.S. jobs data and as investor sentiment improved regarding Europe’s festering debt crisis.
Where your job went;
It’s less than insignificant in that next week the drop will be revised up to an increase. Somehow, somewhere, Franz Kafka is laughing.
Obama has added 5.4 mil. People to SSDI. These people don’t get counted in the unemployment stats.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
