The general trend on initial unemployment claims over the last few months has been largely encouraging, despite occasional setbacks, but today's report is the best we've seen in quite a while.
About a month ago, initial jobless claims matched a four-year low, and as of today, they managed to get even better, exceeding expectations by dropping to the lowest level since February 2008.
The number of Americans who filed requests for jobless benefits fell by 5,000 last week to 348,000, the lowest level since February 2008, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. Claims from two weeks ago were revised up to 353,000 from 351,000. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had projected claims would rise to a seasonally adjusted 353,000 in the week ended March 17. The average of new claims over the past four weeks, meanwhile, declined by 1,250 to 355,000.
In terms of metrics, keep in mind, when these jobless claims fall below the 400,000 threshold, it's considered evidence of an improving jobs landscape. When the number drops below 370,000, it suggests jobs are actually being created rather quickly.
We've now dropped below 370,000 for seven consecutive weeks, and eight of the last 10 weeks.
And with that, here's the chart, showing weekly, initial unemployment claims going back to the beginning of 2007. (Remember, unlike the monthly jobs chart, a lower number is good news.) For context, I've added an arrow to show the point at which President Obama's Recovery Act began spending money.
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The Federal Reserve has recently admitted that their policies cannot fix America's stubborn unemployment issues as shown here:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2011/07/job-friction-why-economists-employed-at.html
In large part, it is central bank policies that created the unemployment mess in America in the first place.
But.... if Romney were president the new unemployment claims would be less than zero because he'd have made sure EVERYONE had jobs since all the illegal scary people had self-deported leaving lots of good jobs created by the wealthy through their tax cuts.
Just sayin......
Can't wait to see the graphic Fox news comes up for this one!!
Don't hold your breath and stand on one foot waiting. They have not put this up on their website at all, OR the kerfluffle about etch-a-sketch Romney. However, they do have a big article about a fund for Breitbart's children.
May I suggest that, in addition to the stimulus arrow, you color code the chart, with a red bar at the bottom for Bush and a blue one for Obama? A little additional visual information would make this even more damning at a quick glance.
I'd also like to see an arrow marking when the Republican Congress took office after the 2010 elections. I'm pretty sure it matches that place where the downward trend turns upward for a while, as they started screwing with policies that helped the recovery.
The sudden Bush crackdown on undocumented workers caused millions of people to be thrown out of work and stopped construction and other work. Millions lost their homes because they could no longer make the payments. Banks went broke and were found out to be cheating. Millions are now in the underground economy.
When Bush attacked the Undocumented, he did damage to the U.S. economic base causing a collapse of the main structure. Before the crackdown unemployment was around 4%, well below what is considered Full Employment
I haven't thought of the connect concerning "The sudden Bush crackdown on undocumented workers". It's worth some thought and research.
Tommy
www.myplacetoo.com