New jobless claims rise unexpectedly to 627K

[IDemo]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The government says the number of people filing first-time claims for jobless benefits increased last week, partly due to layoffs related to the end of the school year.

The Labor Department says new jobless claims rose by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 627,000. Economists expected a drop to 600,000 claims, according to Thomson Reuters.

A department analyst says that states reported more claims than expected from teachers, cafeteria workers and other school employees.

The number of people continuing to receive unemployment insurance rose by 29,000 to 6.74 million, slightly above analysts' estimates of 6.7 million.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31543064/ns/business/

[Odin2005]

1. "nobody could have expected..."

:eyes:

[mbperrin]

2. Unexpected by whom? Folks in a coma? Look around in your town,

and see if traffic is out on weeknights; take a look in restaurants - full or no; check the mall parking lot - full or no.

I want the names of the "economists" who thought the number would fall, especially right in the midst of 250,000 GM jobs being eliminated, not counting dealers nor suppliers.

Can you spell Useful Idiots?

[blue_onyx]

6. It was unexpected to some

Last week, there was some article that had one piece of good news and a bunch of DUers were complaining about the "doom and gloomers" who would rain on the great news. We're not at the bottom yet. I say the national unemployment has a shot at 15% officially and MI (because of GM) could hit 20-25%.

[mbperrin]

18. I think both your numbers are extremely likely.

Maybe even worse. We're still in freefall.

[Moondog]

16. If they looked at my town, they'd be expecting much higher numbers.

Small businesses going under all over the place. Empty restaurants. The only places where business seems to be up is the liquor stores. It is going to get worse, and maybe a lot worse, before it begins to get better.

[high density]

3. Unexpectedly??

No businesses want to buy anything and consumers are hoarding money out of necessity. Of course that is going to lead to more job loss.

[xchrom]

4. unexpected.

:rofl: these comediennes kill me.

[ixion]

5. like the other responses, I balk at the word: "unexpected"

it's BS "playing stupid" crap like this that caused the trouble in the first place.

[JonQ]

7. When the increase in unemployment was somewhat lower than expected

our president took the credit saying he prevented x amount of jobs being lost (x=expected jobs lost - actual). Does that mean he personally took away jobs from those 40,000 people? (6.7-6.74= -.04 million jobs).

[OhioChick]

8. "Unexpected?"

:wtf: are they smoking?

[hugo_from_TN]

9. Since everyone here is so doubtful that the rise was unexpected,

please post what you expect the new jobless claims to be next week. We'll see how many of you are really smarter than the analysts.

[TheWatcher]

11. Probably a lot smarter than people who sit around waiting for CNBC to tell them what to think.

:eyes:

Next.

[Sentath]

14. I think you're looking at the wrong line.

I'm not criticizing the accuracy of the currently receiving numbers.

I'm making fun of the line where they said they thought it would go down.

[hugo_from_TN]

17. They've gone down every week since May 9.

Thus the surprise that they rose last week. Hopefully the downward trend will return.

Edit: Jobless claims have actually gone down every week since April 4 except for the one week uptick on May 9. Thus they have been going down 9 of the last 10 weeks until now.

[Psephos]

20. The number of unemployed hasn't gone down even once this year. It's only gone up.

You're talking about whether the rate at which people are becoming unemployed is rising or falling. The rate change has nothing to do with the fact that every week, hundreds of thousands *more* people lose their jobs. I hope to see the rate decline, of course, but the real benchmark is: are we losing jobs or gaining them? That will decide the next election cycle.

[JonQ]

15. Problem is we're making a lot of predictions

ie "policies" based on these numbers which tend to be very expensive. You can't one day use these numbers to demand funding for one thing or another, then the next when they're shown to be wrong simply sneer "lets see you do any better".

For instance I predict that we will have torrential downpours for the next 8-9 weeks, and as such I'm going to allocate 10 trillion dollars to providing everyone with free umbrellas, rainboots, towels, etc to deal with that crises. And if it doesn't come true, well you try predicting the weather that far in advance, it's hard, can't blame me.

[caseymoz]

10. I remember they said that the economy was getting better,

Because we only lost 200 thousand jobs last month, instead of the 600 thousand plus we were losing every month since September. Everyone was getting optimistic. What they didn't understand was: no curve, no measure will stay constant. Graph curves usually go up and down.

[TheWatcher]

12. They've been Propagandizing the Public RELENTLESSLY since March 9

That "The Recovery" is here and The Recession will end by the end of the year. Then it was June.

And now the buzzword is "Easing".

We have been lied to on a Soviet Level for months now.

Our Media is no more reliable or dependent than the old Pravda from the 70's.

[caseymoz]

21. Well, you have to understand, with an economy, optimism can help.

One cornerstone of an economy is the mood of its people. You could actually improve an economy, at least somewhat, with optimism and calm. I guess that was their motivation, but I myself found it very unlikely we were having any sign of a recovery. I guess I'm making the economy worse by being a know it all . . .

[DJ13]

13. So THATS why the stock market is going up today

[ohio2007]

19. one of 30 million laid off out of a country of one Billion point of view

20 minute video of life on the other side of the Wal-Mart wall


Production Line To Picket Line - China




Computers, clothes and toys once poured off China's production lines, destined for the West. Now the factories are closed, millions are out of work and Chinese officials fear serious political unrest.

All of the orders vanished' says Tanley, the owner of a toy factory in Dong Guan, known as 'the factory of the world'. He's seen factory upon factory close since the autumn of last year. Often, More.. owners flee without paying their staff. 'The local government had to pay the workers' Tanley says.

For the 30 million Chinese now thought to be unemployed, there is no safety net. But the government is stepping in to control the large protests evolving out of sudden plant closures. 'We all know the workers are working in the worst situation in the world' says radio DJ and former Tiananmen Square protester, Han. But he believes the crisis has forced the government to address labour rights.
'It's a bad image to arrest workers for going on strike for legal payment - they don't want to exacerbate the tensions' he says.

It's 60 years since the communists came to power and 20 years since the massacre at Tiananmen Square. Now at the sharp end of this economic crisis, the government is doing everything it can to prevent a revolt. 'This is progress in the absence of genuine democracy, a more tolerant authoritarian regime

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=63c_1245962847