Claims For Jobless Benefits Near 5-Year Low

[Purveyor]

Source: USA TODAY

WASHINGTON -- Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell 16,000 to 339,000 the week ended April 20, the Labor Department said Thursday.

It's the second-lowest level in five years.

And the four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out weekly fluctuations, fell 4,500 to 357,500 last week.

The latest number is well below economists' consensus estimates of a seasonally adjusted 350,000, and suggest hiring may be improving from March's sluggish pace.

Last month, employers added just 88,000 nonfarm jobs to payrolls. That was a sharp drop from the previous four months, when an average 220,000 jobs a month were created.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/04/25/claims-unemployment-benefits-fall-339k/2111799/

[SmittynMo]

1. I am so sick and tired of reading this BS

It's all bullshit. It does not reflect the unemployed in this country, which I guess is around 20%. All this tells me is that there are more people where benefits have expired, and less jobs being created. What does that tell you? We're still in a recession, and things don't appear to be getting better. Of those that have found work, I'm almost certain they had to take a job beneath their skill set for a much lower pay. We're still a long way from a recovery. Meanwhile corporation profits are at an all time high. So much for trickle down economics. Greedy bastards!!!!

[dmallind]

6. You may be less so if you understood it

Thursday reports' headline numbers cited here are of INITIAL claims - absolutely fuck all, in any way shape or form, to do with expired benefits. It's the number of people who started a claim, which may never be completed, may be rejected, or may be approved, and in the worst possible case is two years away from expiring benefits.

Nor is it a measure of job creation, merely job losses. It is a one sided metric which does not even uniquely drive the unemployment rate. To get that we need to see the number of people who got jobs in the same week - a number that is not and likely cannot accurately be reported. We must wait for the monthly household survey to get the result of the two (although it's worth clearing up another common but asinine misconception in advance there too - the UE rate does not depend on or even report on benefit receipt or eligibility either. You can have used up your benefits decades ago and still be counted as long as you looked for work just once in the last year for U6).

[Yo_Mama]

7. It's real

It means that a lot less people are losing jobs every month than have been. I admit it doesn't directly address job creation.

[joanbarnes]

2. We could be in FULL recovery if the Treasonous Republicans did not block every effort...

[fasttense]

4. But that's their job

and Democratic leaders have shown they will bow down to the whims of the uber rich like Pete Peterson (and his war on Social Security that Obama has taken up) as easily as RepubliCONS.

Don't you wish Democratic leaders had been such great obstructionist when the bushes were appointed president?

[fasttense]

3. There are more unemployed people in America today than during the height of the mass layoffs

during the Great Recession.

Right now, despite the low unemployment rate reported by the US government, there are tens of millions of more people who don't have a job than in the height of the mass layoffs of the Great Recession when the official unemployment rate was well over 10%.

When you fire a part time person, or a subcontractor, or a seasonal worker, they don't get unemployment insurance.

[Yo_Mama]

9. I looked it up - you are right

Employment is improving, but we have a long way to go:


Full-time employment is particularly absent:

[Sunlei]

5. People aren't getting the kind of jobs anymore where they can get unemployment.

A lot of companies use part time hours, or pay contractors for employees or use foreign visa workers. They don't want to hire Americans or pay benefits to cut into profits.

[Yo_Mama]

8. That's definitely a factor n/t

[SmittynMo]

13. 100% correct.

Right after bush got his ass out, I lost my job. I have been doing self employed contract for since then. I have to reserve 46% of my pay for taxes - Note: (I have to pay 2x FICA, being self employed). I am not allowed to collect unemployment during my "down" times.
I'm self employed(W9), which makes you not eligible to receive benefits. Even though I pay 46% in taxes!!! A lot of IT jobs are contractual and they receive a W9. Some jobs are W2, but not a lot, and still you have a contract. After that period, you're unemployed. So unless you have a W2, you are not eligible for unemployment. I know quite a few people receiving W9's, are considered W9 employees, and are getting screwed, and will never collect unemployment. So yes, you are 100% correct. Note: It sucks doing contract work when you don't know where you'll be working, if at all, in the next xx months.

[DallasNE]

10. This Surprises Me

I wonder if the Boston Marathon bombing attack may have somehow caused a disruption in reporting from some areas because this report is an outliner. Next weeks numbers should clear this up.

[mother earth]

11. I'm so tired of numbers that don't matter in relation to

recovery. We'll know if and when it's real, their numbers are pure BS. Yeah, big victory, a large majority no longer qualify for benefits, but remain unemployed, because THERE IS NO REAL RECOVERY, there is stagnation & more of the same.

Gov't & congress are on holiday. It's broken, people.

[fasttense]

12. You are absolutely right

It is broken. The whole system has moved from a democracy (or kind of a democracy) to an oligarchy and we must change it or our entire planet will become unlivable.

We need to take over the corporations. We need to kick out the CEOs and board of directors and put the workers in charge of the things we create with our labor.

We need to replace capitalism with a democratic economic system in the places we work or it will eat the entire planet and leave a stinking mess.

Capitalism has put a bunch of greedy, out of control, corrupt men in charge and we need to put ourselves back in charge.