Jobless Claims in U.S. Keep Hovering Near Four-Decade Lows

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

Initial jobless claims in the U.S. continued to hover around four-decade lows last week as the labor market strengthens toward full employment.

Applications submitted to state agencies for unemployment benefits decreased by 5,000 to 271,000 in the week ended Nov. 14 from 276,000 in the previous period, a Labor Department report showed Thursday. The number of claims dipped to 255,000 in mid-July, the fewest since the 1970s.

Steady demand has encouraged employers to hold the line on firings as a tighter labor market makes it difficult to attract skilled workers. Employment has shown enough signs of strength to allow Federal Reserve policy makers to consider raising rates for the first time in almost a decade.

“The trend in initial claims remains very encouraging,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, who accurately projected the decrease in claims. “The job market continues to motor toward full employment, and we should be there by this time next year.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-19/jobless-claims-in-u-s-keep-hovering-near-four-decade-lows

[Ford_Prefect]

1. More economic hocus-pocus from the big noise.

None of the recent or current employment numbers account in any way for those who are no longer looking or are denied work opportunities in their local economy.

As a measure of employment overall this only covers who is being let go at the moment which is seasonal as much as it is a measure of "real" employment.

It is also something of a mis-application of fact since no mention is made of how many people are fully employed at a living wage level. For those of you scratching your head they include part-time employment in the people employed figures you will see without the distinction made of those who may have several part-time jobs versus those who have one.

Since Nixon's day they have "adjusted" the numbers and terms and meanings of same to suit whatever political point was served. The commonly used terms you see in the daily news cycles are so general and manipulated as to be almost meaningless in terms of real economic activity. One other feature not mentioned is that a number of states have increased the length of time one must be employed to receive benefits and have also reduced the number of weeks of total benefit one may receive at any one time or in a working lifetime. These changes alone make comparison to other periods moot.

The only purpose it serves is to allow other manipulations like the one proposed:The raising of rates by the Fed.

Steady demand has encouraged employers to hold the line on firings as a tighter labor market makes it difficult to attract skilled workers. Employment has shown enough signs of strength to allow Federal Reserve policy makers to consider raising rates for the first time in almost a decade.