U.S. jobless claims drop to lowest since 2008 after holiday break

[News_Editor]

U.S. jobless claims drop to lowest since 2008 after holiday break

2012-01-20 08:35:09 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- After experiencing a significant rise in unemployment insurance claims following the holiday season, the U.S. saw its initial claims drop to its lowest level since 2008 this week, according the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) on Thursday.

The seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims in the week ending January 14 dropped to 352,000, a decrease of 50,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 402,000. The 4-week moving average was 379,000, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 382,500.

A sharp rise in the beginning of the year is not uncommon as the job market tends to be unstable during the holidays. This week's figures are the lowest since April 2008, and even though it could benefit consumer spending, signs of improvement should continue in the coming weeks in order to actually represent an improving economy.

The DOL report also shows that the number of unemployed with unemployment insurance for the week ending January 7 was 2.7 percent, a decrease of 0.2 percent compared to the previous week.

There was also a decrease of 215,000 in the number of workers who claimed benefits under regular state unemployment programs, totaling 3,432,000 during the week ending January 7, according to the latest DOL report. The 4-week moving average was 3,576,250, a decrease of 34,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,610,250.

In the unadjusted, advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, the DOL report also showed a significant decrease, as it totaled 521,613 in the week ending January 14, a decrease of 124,606 from the previous week. There were 549,688 initial claims in the comparable week in 2011.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending December 31 were in Alaska (6.9), Connecticut (6.6), Oregon (5.0), Wisconsin (4.9), Pennsylvania (4.7), Idaho (4.5), Rhode Island (4.5), Montana (4.3), New Jersey (4.2), Arkansas (4.0), Illinois (4.0), and Washington (4.0).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 7 were in New York (+29,389), California (+22,168), Texas (+13,946), North Carolina (+7,865), and Georgia (+7,225) while the largest decreases were in Wisconsin (-7,657), Michigan (-5,208), Iowa (-4,675), New Jersey (-4,667), and Kentucky (-3,577).

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-01-20

[yougivemebaby]

Yaaay Please give us Americans 45 bt per usd..

[Scott]

I sure that would be appreciated, but I think that ship has sailed and it will be a long time before it arrives at this port again, I think.

[flying]

I agree Scott

Many folks do not realize but every time we raise our debt ceiling/increase our monetary base

we devalue our currency. It shows no signs of stopping anytime soon

As for these jobless claims....They cannot get their stories right.

These things are adjusted & re-adjusted

Yet they only show jobless claims which is a small percentage of reality.

Many have exhausted their claims long ago & are now just flat jobless.

Many never qualified for claims as they were self employed or business owners.

So these feel good numbers mean very little in our real world.

But expect them to get a lot better as election campaigns get rolling shortly.