Posted on 07/18/2013 7:54:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. fell more-than-expected last week, easing concerns over the U.S. jobs market, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending July 13 fell by 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 334,000, compared to expectations for a drop of 13,000 to 345,000.
Jobless claims for the preceding week were revised down to a gain of 358,000, from a previously reported 360,000.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended July 6 rose to 3.114 million. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.959 million from last weeks revised figure of 3.023 million.
The four-week moving average was 346,000, a decline of 5,250 from the previous week's revised average of 351,250.
The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar held on to gains against the euro, with EUR/USD shedding 0.3% to trade at 1.3085.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock index futures were little changed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures indicated a gain of 0.1% at the open, S&P 500 futures pointed to a rise 0.1%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a decline of 0.1% at the open.
There = They’re
Keeping the New Normal normal.
Jobless claims for the preceding week were revised down to a gain of 358,000, from a previously reported 360,000.
ECONOMY
Updated July 16, 2013, 7:34 p.m. ET
Wild Cards for the Fed’s Exit Strategy
Inflation, Jobs and Fiscal Policy Among the Question Marks
But a number of Fed officials have doubts about whether the jobless rate is a very good indicator of the labor market’s health. In the past year the unemployment rate has fallen from 8.2% to 7.6%, an apparent sign of improvement. However, the rate has fallen in part because people are dropping out of the labor forcethe share of adults holding or seeking a jobmeaning they’re no longer counted as unemployed.
“We have underemployment, part-time work, people leaving the labor force, reduced participation, long-term unemployment,” Mr. Bernanke said at his June press conference. That could mean the jobless rate is “not exactly representative of the state of the labor market,” he said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324348504578609951521236118.html
Employers are just cutting their full time to 29 hours and hiring part time for 20 hours.
And I’m betting that when a small business that’s growing gets to 49 employees that the strategy will become to start an entirely new business in their same line with new management and a profit-sharing contract. And they will go to 49 employees, and they to 49, etc.
So, I guess this means to pay attention to super-small cap.
So 34,000 more Americans can’t find a job and have run out of benefits. Outstanding job mr. pretender!
The big statistic in this month’s report is the increase in part-time jobs - 320,000. So of the 180,000 “jobs created” 320,000 of them are part time.
This might seem a bit confusing. But what you’re seeing is the cannibalization of existing full-time jobs which are being turned into part time jobs.
Obama’s equation for “creating” jobs...?
If an employer needs someone to work 40 hours a week to meet his need, the government can show an increase in jobs if we turn that one 40-hour per week job into two 20-hour per week part time jobs.
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