Jobless claims rise to 16-month high

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070125/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy

Jobless claims rise to 16-month high

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer 1 hour, 43 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits shot up last week by the largest amount in 16 months, reversing two weeks of big declines.


The Labor Department reported Thursday that 325,000 newly laid-off workers filed claims for jobless benefits last week, an increase of 36,000 from the previous week. That was the biggest one-week rise since a surge of 96,000 claims the week of Sept. 10, 2005, when devastated Gulf Coast businesses laid off workers following Hurricane Katrina.

The increase of 36,000 was bigger than the 20,000 rise that had been forecast. Analysts, however, cautioned that it is difficult to read the claims figures at this time of year because of unusually wide swings caused by the holidays and other factors.

Based on past trends, claims numbers often surge in third week of the month as retail businesses shed seasonal workers hired to help with the crush of holiday shoppers. However, this year, the layoffs were much higher than in past years.

...........

[rodeodance]

1. Strong global growth fails to reduce jobless: ILO

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070124/ts_nm/economy_employment_un_dc_1

Strong global growth fails to reduce jobless: ILO

Wed Jan 24, 6:06 PM ET

GENEVA (Reuters) - Strong global economic growth is failing to reduce unemployment worldwide and has done little to cut the number of "working poor" who earn less than $2 a day, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.


Even though more people were employed than ever before, the number of new jobs created failed to match the rise in global population.

The result was that the number of jobless remained at a record high of 195.2 million in 2006, the ILO said in its annual report on employment trends.

Some 1.37 billion people were still working for $2 a day or less, which marks the international poverty line.

[laylah]

2. And what these numbers do NOT

reflect are folks like me, whose benefits end 02/04, no extensions, and nowhere to turn for help (medical, mortgage, utilities, etc). I often wonder why the ones who have run out of benefits but are still unemployed, are "hidden" from the stats.

Jenn

[robcon]

4. You aren't "hidden" from the stats.

Your employment status has absolutely nothing to do with whether you are receiving unemployment benefits.

If you are without a job, but in the workforce (i.e. looking for work) you are counted as unemployed in the statistics.

Whether you are receiving benefits is irrelevant to your employment status (but not to your financial situation, of course) and always has been irrelevant.

edit:spell

[GoddessOfGuinness]

3. What we need is more fast-food restaurants!

Let's get these people busy manufacturing again!