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The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, underscoring a firming of the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 358,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The four-week moving average for new claims, seen as a better measure of labor market trends, fell 11,000 to 366,250 - the lowest level since April 2008. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new claims rising to 370,000. U.S. stock index futures slightly added to gains after the report, while Treasury debt prices eased. The dollar rose to a session...

Sounds more like 2004 Obama campaigning against 2012 Obama.

The unemployment rate for blacks fell more than 2 percentage points last month to its lowest level since March 2009. The drop puzzled economists, who cautioned that it's too early to say that a job market recovery for blacks is underway. The rate for African-Americans didn't budge at all in 2011, ending the year at 15.8%. The overall unemployment rate fell nearly a percentage point last year. But even at 13.6% for January, the unemployment rate for blacks is still far higher than the rate for other racial and ethnic groups, as well as the nation as a whole. The...

The U.S. economy produced another solid month of job gains in January, offering a hopeful sign for hiring in the year ahead. Employers added a net 243,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported Friday. That’s higher than December, when employers added a net 200,000 jobs, and it marked the seventh straight month in which at least 100,000 jobs were created. That hasn't happened since 2005. The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent in January from 8.5 percent in the prior month. The unemployment rate has fallen for the past five months and is now at its lowest level...

<p>The U.S. economy gained 243,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate slipped to 8.3%, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast the U.S. would add 121,000 jobs last month, with a jobless rate of 8.5%. The private sector boosted payrolls by 257,000, led by large increases in manufacturing, professional services, leisure and hospitality and health care.</p>

The Register is reporting this morning that private employers added 170,000 jobs in January. So, isn’t that good news? Well, probably for those 170,000 people, whoever they are. But economists tell us that, give or take, from 125,000 to 200,000 enter the job market monthly. That means . . .

Supporters of President Obama should mail some straw to the White House. That way, if Obama wants to grasp at straws, he'll have something to use other than last Friday's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Employment Situation report. This report, which Obama bragged about as representing "steady progress", was actually terrible. The media tends to focus on the BLS "Establishment Survey", which produces the "Payroll Employment" numbers. This report showed an increase of 200,000 jobs from November to December. However, the Establishment Survey has become more and more skewed by questionable seasonal adjustments, and by the BLS's "Birth-Death Model", which...

Growing numbers of New Yorkers seeking food stamps have created an unwelcome spillover effect at some of New York City's job centers: overcrowding that in some cases has grown so severe, benefits were jeopardized. The crush of people grew so large at one Brooklyn center in November that the Fire Department intervened and prevented anyone from entering the building.

President Barack Obama took office in January 2009 after having campaigned on the broad promise of "hope" and "change." However, to stay in office, there is one thing President Obama should hope for: an improvement in the employment picture before the 2012 elections. The last three years have seen some of the highest unemployment rates reported since the Great Depression. The official rate moved from 5 percent in January 2008 to a high of 10.1 percent in October 2009, and a current rate of 8.6 percent. It rests 3 points above the 1948-2007 average of 5.6 percent. Unfortunately, the reality...

Have the youth given up on Obama? By Brad Chase - Special to CNN In 2008, the youth vote helped sweep Barack Obama into office.  Americans 18-29 spread the word on social media, energized fundraising and went to the polls. In 2012, the youth vote is moving on and throwing those omnipresent “Hope” bumper stickers and t-shirts in garbage bins.   Not because of apathy.  Not because another candidate generates more enthusiasm.  Not because of his character.  Not because they think voting is pointless.  The 18-29 vote is up for grabs in 2012 because youth can’t afford cars to put...

House Democrats prepping for fight over proposed cuts to jobless benefitsBy Vicki Needham - 12/26/11 07:15 AM ET House Democrats are critical of GOP proposals that make sweeping changes to the federal unemployment benefits program, but are holding back specifics on how they intend to work out those differences as both sides line up for a battle over extending jobless assistance. The two sides face a deep divide on what to include and how to cover the $200 billion cost of jobless benefits legislation that is expected to extend the policies through the 2012 elections. On the cusp of early...

Alabama’s unemployment rate fell at a record pace in November amid stepped-up efforts by President Barack Obama’s deputies to frustrate enforcement of the state’s popular new immigration reform. The state’s unemployment rate fell 0.6 percent in November to 8.7 percent, according to new state reports, partly because the state’s employers opened up jobs to Americans after shedding illegal immigrants. The unemployment rate is far below October’s rate of 9.3 percent and September’s rate of 9.8 percen

... Never before have so many of the unemployed owed their job loss, not indirectly at all, but quite obviously directly, to the intentional, conscious directives of their president and his direct appointees, the czars and cabinet secretaries who have launched a direct frontal assault on industry after industry ever since their appointments. Consider: Car Dealers: In 2009, though everyone knew that the problems dooming Chrysler and General Motors were their enormous property and property tax obligations caused by too big, too old, factories, and their utterly unsupportable labor and pension costs, Barack Obama ordered the closure of over 3000...

Via CNS News and our friend and Townhall colleague Greg Hengler, Nancy Pelosi lectured America on macroeconomics yesterday by insisting that an extension of unemployment benefits would “make a difference of 600,000 jobs to our economy.” Greg recalled a similar claim from Pelosi about ObamaCare, and adds it to the end of Pelosi’s claim from yesterday: “Christmas is 10 days away,” said Pelosi at a press briefing on Capitol Hill today. “The president and Democrats in Congress have been very clear. We’re not going home without enacting a payroll tax cut for America’s working families and extending unemployment insurance for...

After it was revealed yesterday that an increasing number of women are using the sex industry to pay their way through university, one woman has told her story of stripping while studying. Emma Green, of Glamorgan, Wales, turned to stripping on a webcam for men and earned £200-a-week to fund her studies. The 25-year-old, who studied multi-media design at Glamorgan University before spending another year at a beauty therapy college in 2009, says a normal part-time job was out of the question because of her intense course workload.

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits dropped to a 3-1/2 year low last week and factory activity in New York state scaled a seven-month high in December, more evidence of a pick-up in economic activity. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 366,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was the lowest level since May 2008, and confounded economist' expectations for a rise to 390,000. In a separate report, the New York Federal Reserve said its "Empire State" general business conditions index rose to 9.53 - the highest since May...

New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a nine-month low last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting the labor market recovery was gaining momentum. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 381,000, the Labor Department said, the lowest since late February. The prior week's data was revised up to 404,000 from the previously reported 402,000. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims slipping to 395,000 last week. The report, coming on the heels of data last week showing a rise in hiring and a sharp drop in the unemployment rate to 8.6...

The official unemployment rate fell by an impressive (and statistically significant) 0.4 last month, from 9.0 percent in October to 8.6 percent in November. 8.6 percent is the lowest rate since March 2009. "Signs of Hope," cheered the New York Times. The Washington Post said that economists "liked what they saw." (But not all economists.) Was the unemployment decline really good news, or was it bad news disguised as good? Let's start with jobs. Payroll employment rose only modestly in November, by 120,000. The payroll data, collected from employers, have monthly sampling error of about 100,000, so the November gain...

The new unemployment numbers are a lot worse than the headlines indicate. The news media is breathlessly reporting today that 120,000 jobs were created in November. But with the working age population increasing by about 160,000 people each month, job creation isn’t even keeping up with the number of people entering the work force. So how is it possible for the unemployment rate to fall from 9.0 to 8.6 percent? The explanation is actually pretty simple. People are only counted as unemployed as long as they are actively looking for work. It is good news when the number to falls...

Here are the four most important data points and charts from today's job report: the civilian labor force declined from 154,198 to 153,883, a 315K decline despite the civilian non-institutional population increased (as expected) from 240,269 to 240,441: always the easiest way to push down the unemployment rate. Percentage wise this was a drop from 64.2% to 64.0%: the lowest since back in 1983. Naturally, this would mean that the people not part of the labor force rose, and indeed they did by 487,000 to a record 86,558 from 86,071. This also means that more people are looking for...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- The U.S. economy should grow only moderately over the next two years, generating just enough jobs to slowly reduce unemployment, University of Michigan economists said Thursday. [Snip] The annual economic forecast said that economic output growth should be about 2.5 percent in both 2012 and 2013, up from this year's projected rate of 1.8 percent. The national jobless rate should drop from 9 percent now to 8.8 percent in late 2012 and to 8.5 percent in late 2013, forecasters said.

Last year, a medical-technology firm called Numira Biosciences, founded in 2005 in Irvine, California, packed its bags and moved to Salt Lake City. The relocation, CEO Michael Beeuwsaert told the Orange County Register, was partly about the Utah destination’s pleasant quality of life and talented workforce. But there was a big “push factor,” too: California’s steepening taxes and ever-thickening snarl of government regulations. “The tipping point was when someone from the Orange County tax [assessor] wanted to see our facility to tax every piece of equipment I had,” Beeuwsaert said. “In Salt Lake City at my first networking event...

Despite predicting record-setting revenue for the current quarter, San Jose software company Adobe (ADBE) announced Tuesday that it will lay off up to 7.5 percent of its workforce. Adobe is making a push for greater control of the digital media and marketing sectors, a decision that "will result in the elimination of approximately 750 full-time positions primarily in North America and Europe," the company said in a news release. Adobe reported at the end of its last quarter that it employed 10,040 people. In an email, Adobe spokeswoman Jodi Sorensen declined to state how many employees will be laid off...

Cody Preston, 25, keeps looking for work that will pay what he made installing granite counters. PORTLAND, Ore.—Few groups were hit harder by the recession than young men, like Cody Preston and Justin Randol, 25-year-old high-school buddies who didn't go to college. The unemployment rate for males between 25 and 34 years old with high-school diplomas is 14.4%—up from 6.1% before the downturn four years ago and far above today's 9% national rate. The picture is even more bleak for slightly younger men: 22.4% for high-school graduates 20 to 24 years old. That's up from 10.4% four years ago. In...

Jobs Report: 'Things Are So Bad That This Looks Good' Published: Friday, 4 Nov 2011 | 11:42 AM ET By: Patti Domm CNBC Executive News Editor October's employment reports showed continued sluggish job growth, but positive revisions for earlier months takes away some of the sting and reaffirms the economy is growing. The government reported 80,000 total jobs were added in October. There were 104,000 private sector positions added in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, health care and mining, and 24,000 government jobs were lost. The unemployment rate fell slightly to 9 percent from 9.1 percent in September....

We will simply copy and paste, with the appropriate adjustments, the form text we put up after each and every NFP report calculating the number of people that have to be added by the end of a hypothetical second Obama term. Using the October boilerplate: "Every few months we rerun an analysis of how many jobs the US economy has to generate to return to the unemployment rate as of December 2007 when the Great Financial Crisis started, by the end of Obama's potential second term in November 2016. This calculation takes into account the historical change in Payroll...

And back to the old gimmicks: the Birth Death adjustment has now "added" 530 jobs in 2011, and the October number of 102K is 31K greater than a year earlier. ...

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend up in October (+80,000). The unemployment rate was little changed (9.0%). Employment in the private sector rose, with modest job growth continuing in professional and businesses services, leisure and hospitality, health care, and mining.

<p>WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The U.S. added 80,000 jobs in October and the unemployment rate edged down to 9.0% from 9.1%, the Labor Department reported Friday.</p>

<p>U.S. employment rose less than expected in October, but a drop in the jobless rate to a six-month low of 9.0 percent and upward revisions to prior months' job gains pointed to underlying strength in the labor market.</p> <p>Nonfarm payrolls rose 80,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, missing economists' expectations for a gain of 95,000. However, figures for August and September were revised to show 102,000 more jobs than previously reported.</p>

Unemployment appears stuck -- not going up and not going down. Initial nationwide unemployment claims for the week ending Oct. 22 ticked down 2,000 to 402,000 from 404,000, the previous week's revised number. The four-week moving average, which is considered a more reliable measure, rose 1,750 from the previous week's revised average of 403,750. The total number of people claiming benefits for the week ending Oct. 8 was 6,681,507, a decrease of 14,634 from the previous week. Some 26,697 former Federal civilian employees claimed unemployment insurance benefits for the week ending Oct. 8, an increase of 1,811 from the previous...

Las Vegas-The slot machines jangle away with the promise of sudden riches, but many visitors to a job fair at a second-tier casino here are hoping merely for a minimum-wage job to snap their losing streak. The grim economy hasn't been the only disappointment of the past several years for those hoping to find work with the limousine companies, insurance agencies and home healthcare providers that have set up shop at this career fair. Ask Kimberly Howard who she voted for in 2008, and she glances sideways before confiding what appears to be a shameful secret. "Obama," she mutters. It's...

Before the new jobless numbers were released this morning, the AP ran this article predicting new jobless claims would increase from 401k to 405k: ------------------------------------ WASHINGTON-AP — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits probably ticked up last week, a sign the job market is stagnating. Economists forecast that initial claims for benefits rose 4,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 405,000, according to a survey by FactSet. That would be the second straight increase, after a steep fall the previous week. ------------------------------------------- When the labor department later released its numbers showing the 401k had only INCREASED to 404k, the...

The number of Americans who filed applications for unemployment benefits inched down by 1,000 last week to 404,000...

READING, Pa. — The exhausted mothers who come to the Second Street Learning Center here — a day care provider for mostly low-income families — speak of low wages, hard jobs and an economy gone bad. Ashley Kelleher supports her family on the $900 a month she earns as a waitress at an International House of Pancakes. Louri Williams packs cakes and pies all night for $8 an hour, takes morning classes, and picks up her children in the afternoon. Teresa Santiago takes complaints from building supply customers for $10 an hour, not enough to cover her $1,900 in monthly...

The projection of 1.9 million new jobs, a 1 percentage point drop in the unemployment rate and a 2 percentage point increase in the gross domestic product under Obama's plan came from Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. "I assumed that it would be paid for," Zandi said. "I didn't know when I did that simulation how the president proposed to pay for it." Zandi said his job-creation figure only applies to 2012. "Beginning in 2013, and certainly into 2014, the plan is a drag on the economy because the stimulus starts fading away," he said. "So by 2015,...

After 30 months of unemployment, 400 applications, and only three in-person interviews, I stood looking at my last unemployment benefit without a job in sight. The temptation was to frame it, since it marks one of those transitions in life that merits being remembered. But I needed the money more than a memento, so I took my last unemployment check to the bank and deposited it -- $367 for some necessities. Food, rent, gas. My last unemployment check was $160 less than my usual weekly benefit, but still a welcome boost to my sagging finances. How I will miss those...

Applications for unemployment benefits continued to rise in the past week, while inflation pushed higher and a key manufacturing index weakened. Getty Images The weekly jobless claims number, which is closely watched as an indicator for employment trends, unexpectedly rose 11,000 to 428,000, well ahead of estimates of 411,000. The consumer price index, meanwhile, gained 0.4 percent when including volatile food and energy prices, after an increase of 0.5 percent in July. The so-called core CPI, though, gained 0.2 percent, which was in line with expectations. Consumers paid more for a range of goods and services last month, pushing up...

A taxpayer who doesn’t favor Barack Obama might not mind subsidizing a show where he’s attacked as unserious about the country’s problems. But with PBS talk-show host Tavis Smiley, it’s been a relentless attack on Obama from the left. Everything he’s done isn’t half-socialist enough. On Wednesday, Smiley welcomed fellow leftist and former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert to his show to denounce Republicans for keeping Obama from passing a woefully insufficient second “stimulus” attempt. Herbert thinks Obama's new spending proposal is about one-tenth of what's needed. We need a four-trillion-dollar plan. SMILEY: To your point now, then, whose...

It's a mystery that begs for a solution: Unemployment is the No. 1 issue in America -- yet virtually all business people I talk to complain that they can't find the workers they want. When President Obama presents his jobs agenda to the nation this evening, listen carefully for him to address this issue. If he doesn't, he's missing a large element of our problem. (Update, 9/9: The President didn't talk about this phenomenon in his speech, nor does his proposed American Jobs Act address it. But we have to face it, because it's a large element of America's economic...

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are fewer people employed now than back in January 2009 when Barack Obama was sworn in as President, and there are more people unemployed now than in January 2009. Back then, a reported 142 million people had jobs. In July 2011, 139.2 million people had jobs. In terms of employment, the private sector is smaller now than when Obama was sworn in. In January 2009, 110.9 million people were working in the (nonfarm) private sector, but by July 2011 there were only 109.9 million - despite the larger U.S. population in...

President Obama promises to deliver us still another plan to reduce unemployment. He is right about one thing: Jobs are not being created in modern-day America in any serious quantity. Consider these facts: In the 1980s, for every 100 new potential workers (defined as those aged 16 or more), 91 jobs were created. The same statistic for the 2000s (2000–10 was nine (see chart).  In 2010, there were fewer Americans working than in 2004, the first six-year drop in employment since the Great Depression. Why? On the demand side, employers are frightened to hire because of concerns that labor costs...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy weak and the public seething, President Barack Obama is expected to propose $300 billion in tax cuts and federal spending Thursday night to get Americans working again. Republicans offered Tuesday to compromise with him on jobs — but also assailed his plans in advance of his prime-time speech. ... According to people familiar with the White House deliberations, two of the biggest measures in the president's proposals for 2012 are expected to be a one-year extension of a payroll tax cut for workers and an extension of expiring jobless benefits. Together those two would total...

The unemployed will face tough competition from the underemployed ...The job market is even worse than the 9.1 percent unemployment rate suggests. America's 14 million unemployed aren't competing just with each other. They must also contend with 8.8 million other people not counted as unemployed -- part-timers who want full-time work. ... Combined, the 14 million officially unemployed; the "underemployed" part-timers who want full-time work; and "discouraged" people who have stopped looking make up 16.2 percent of working-age Americans. The Labor Department compiles the figure to assess how many people want full-time work and can't find it -- a number...

If you still have a good job, you certainly have something to celebrate on Labor Day 2011. So far you have survived the decline of the U.S. economy. But your day may be coming soon. This weekend, there will be millions of Americans that will not be doing any celebrating. They are not enjoying a break from their jobs because they don't have any jobs. In fact, it seems kind of heartless for the rest of us to be celebrating while so many of our countrymen are destitute. What are we celebrating on Labor Day 2011? The lack of jobs...

Francis Murillo, 21, had a job this summer, putting her in the minority for her age group. Getting a job is a less-than-common occurrence, and now that Murillo is back at school, away from home and her summer job, she’s rejoined the majority of her peers who either aren’t looking for work or just can’t find it. “I don’t care where I’m working,” said the Johnson City, Tenn., resident last week while looking for another job in Chattanooga. “It’s really hard.” According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 48.8 percent of those between 16 and 24 had a...

Judging by the September 2 jobs report, a double dip recession is closer than ever before and that's bad news for everyone still looking for a job. Even worse than the modest 68,000 jobs analysts expected to see, no new jobs at all were added to the economy this quarter. Manufacturing shrank by another 3% and unemployment remained a stark 9.1%. Even the wages for those fortunate enough to be working went down by 0.1%—not a good sign. As bad as this is there are jobs out there, just be prepared to go up against terrifying odds. 1. If you...

Black Unemployment: Highest In 27 Years By Annalyn Censky September 2, 2011 The unemployment rate for blacks surged to 16.7% in August, its highest rate since 1984, the Labor Department reported Friday. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The August jobs report was dismal for plenty of reasons, but perhaps most striking was the picture it painted of racial inequality in the job market. Black unemployment surged to 16.7% in August, its highest level since 1984, while the unemployment rate for whites fell slightly to 8%, the Labor Department reported. "This month's numbers continue to bear out that longstanding pattern that minorities...

Early projections for the August jobs report weren’t looking very good. Some of the estimates were putting the number around 80,000 which would have been far short of what we need just to keep up with population growth, even taking into account the fact that August is usually a slow month. But when the real report came out, the actual number was a bit short of even that estimate… by about 80,000. Employers added no net workers last month and the unemployment rate was unchanged, a sign that many were nervous the U.S. economy is at risk of slipping into...

WASHINGTON-It's almost Labor Day. Unemployment hovers above 9 percent. President Obama plans to address Congress next week, and this time he's promising some real ideas about how to increase employment. At the same time, the National Labor Relations Board is making sure that unemployment remains high in America. Just in time for the Labor Day holiday, the National Labor Relations Board is giving employers a "gift" of more labor-for them to perform. As if employers weren't burdened with enough paperwork, the Board will now require employers to put up 11" by 17" posters informing workers of their right to unionize....