Jobs

A recent post I published on both Credit Writedowns and Naked Capitalism, “Both initial claims and continuing claims now pointing to recovery,” has left the impression that I am a wild-eyed bull – for which I have been duly smacked about…

I'm back after a brief hiatus.  I would like to present you with some data on jobless claims, an economic data series that will become increasingly important in the weeks and months ahead.  The data suggest that a recovery is imminent.…

Initial jobless claims rose 32,000 to 637,000 last week in the United States. This helped push continuing claims to another record of 6.56 million, suggesting the unemployment rate will continue to rise at a worrying pace going forward. …

Below is a chart of the actual non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates as calculated via the household survey. All of the unemployment rates are down from March to April. And the broad measure is down the most, from 16.2% to 15.4%.…

The Employment Situation Summary for April was released today by the U.S. Department of Labor and the headline data was right in line with estimates.  The unemployment rate came in at 8.9%, up from 8.5% in March. Job losses for April were…

In less than 30 minutes, the U.S. employment situation report is coming out. 600,000 job losses is the bogey with 8.9% as the unemployment rate.  Below, Bloomberg News talks about this.

Last week, the number of people filing new unemployment claims dipped to 601,000 on a seasonally-adjusted (SA) basis.  The unadjusted number (NSA) was even lower at 534,047.  This most recent data should bring cheer to the markets as it…

I have done my part over the past few weeks to write that I thought jobless claims signaled the potential for recovery. I started the drumbeat in late March. Here are the posts:

As the possibility of bankruptcy draws nearer, General Motors is moving to sell non-core assets and to broker arrangements with bondholders and unions alike which will keep it out of bankruptcy. In a 9AM press conference today, new General…

Initial jobless claims came in above 600,000 for the 12th straight week at 640,000. Continuing claims came in at a record 6.1 million, up 3 million from this time last year. Both of these numbers suggest a very weak market and you can bet…