Jobless Claims Up ... Again
The Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment insurance rose to a seasonally adjusted 652,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 644,000, slightly higher than analysts expected. A year ago, the number stood at 367,000. The total number of people claiming benefits for more than a week jumped 122,000 to 5.56 million, significantly higher than analysts' projections of 5.48 million and the highest on records dating back to 1967. The continuing claims data lag initial claims by a week. Still, this is less than the 5 million job losses per month that Nancy Pelosi touted in an effort to pass the largest pork barrel spending bill in our nations history. The number of continuing claims has increased by more than 100,000 four times in the past five weeks, an indication that workers are remaining on the rolls for longer as they struggle to land a new job after being laid off. As a proportion of the work force, the number of people receiving benefits is at its highest level since May 1983, when the economy was recovering from a steep recession. As an interesting side note, The Tele-Prompter and his administration have been talking up the economy in the last few weeks. Just this past week, an administration official used the words "fundamentals are sound" to try to boost stock prices. In October, The Tele-Prompter made the following statement in response to John McCain's claim that the fundamentals of the economy were sound: "Nine straight months of job loss. Yet, just the other week, John McCain said the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Well, I don't know what yardstick Sen. McCain uses, but where I come from, there's nothing more fundamental than a job." Someone should remind that Tele-Prompter that there STILL is nothing more fundamental than a job. Perhaps it's time to get off of the PR circuit and do his job.
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