New Jobless Claims Plunge To 601K

[sabra]

Source: CBS News/AP

Drop To Lowest Level Since January A Possible Sign Layoffs Have Peaked; Overall Claims At 6.35M

(AP) New applications for jobless benefits plunged to the lowest level in 14 weeks, a possible sign that the massive wave of layoffs has peaked. Still, the number of unemployed workers getting benefits climbed to a new record.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number newly laid off workers applying for benefits dropped to 601,000 last week. That was far better than the rise to 635,000 claims that economists expected.

But the total number of people receiving jobless benefits climbed to 6.35 million, a 14th straight record.

The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims, which smooths out volatility, totaled 623,500 last week, a decrease of more than 30,000 from the high in early April. Goldman Sachs economists have said a decline of 30,000 to 40,000 in the four-week average is needed to signal a peak.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/07/business/main4997988.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories

[glowing]

1. This isn't a "plunge" in unemployed. This is a disaster.

[Mika]

3. Right. Its a plunge in employment. n/t

[OhioChick]

2. "Claims Plunge To 601K"

Funny how they make that sound like a "good" thing.

[marketcrazy1]

4. we have lost

as many jobs in the first 4 months of 2009 as we lost in the entire year of 2008!, " claims plunge to 601K " WOW what great news!!!! :sarcasm:

[fasttense]

5. Just wait until all those automobile industry jobs start disappearing.

Then you will get a pop up?

[Zynx]

6. There are two articles that should be read when reading why economists sometimes

get excited about things that otherwise seem to be bad news:

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2009/04/initial_claims.html
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2009/04/further_progres.html


Calculated Risk puts a slightly different interpretation of the same thing:
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/05/weekly-unemployment-claims-decline.html

[SOS]

7. July 2008: 350,000 - April 2009: 601,000

Looking good!

[sofa king]

8. Pshaw. I haven't had a real job in five years.

I'll bet there's another half a million people like me, scraping up just enough to get by on one or more shitty part time jobs.

A big part of it is my fault: I refuse to apply my $125/hr skills to a $7/hr part time job.

I don't really care whether or not I can pull down a $125/hr contract, so long as someone else gets it at that rate instead of $7/hr.

[Pale Blue Dot]

9. CONTINUING claims rose to another new record high

I wonder why the media isn't discussing that?

[Baby Snooks]

10. Juggling the figures, juggling the truth...

It didn't take long for this administration to learn how the game works and start playing it.

Every day there's a new spin to the position that the economy is improving and every day when you read the press release disguised as a news story the figures reveal what they are trying not to reveal. Things are getting worse, not better.
____________________________________________________________________

"Still, the number of unemployed workers getting benefits climbed to a new record."
____________________________________________________________________

In other words, they are not finding new jobs. And for the majority of them, there may not be jobs.

[Royal Sloan 09]

11. Chocolate rations increased today to 25 grams, doubleplus good!

+1 on the doublespeak, really good jobs are gone gone gone baby gone!

[marshall]

12. The good news is that there is public assistance for the jobless

At least they will stay afloat until the recovery kicks in.