New Jobless Claims Worsen

According to data released by the government today, the Labor Department said that 480,000 people filed for initial jobless benefits during the week of December 12th---vs. 473,000 people in the prior week.

Continuing Claims also worsened in the week to 5.186 million people collecting unemployment benefits during the week of 12/5/2009.

Weekly Jobless Claims

This morning CNBC reports that the weekly jobless numbers came in at 570,000 for the week ended August 22 down 10,000 from the prior week (adjusted). This brings the 4 week moving average down to down 566,250 (down 4,750)

GDP for Q2-2009 came in at -1.0%

Weekly Jobless Claims Up Up Up

The weekly jobless claims for the week of August 15th rose to 574,000---That's up 15,000 from the prior week and higher than expected. This increased the 4 week moving average up 4,250 to 570,000 new jobless/week...

The report also showed that 6.24 million people are currently receiving unemployment insurance benefits.

Two other interesting tid-bits from the report include:

States reported 2,877,756 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending Aug. 1, an increase of 92,384 from the prior week. There were 1,406,779 claimants in the comparable week in 2008. EUC weekly claims include both first and second tier activity.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Aug. 1 were in Puerto Rico (7.3 percent), Oregon (6.2), Pennsylvania (6.1), Michigan (5.9), Nevada (5.9), Wisconsin (5.5), California (5.3), Connecticut (5.3), New Jersey (5.3), North Carolina (5.1), and South Carolina (5.1).

Continuing Jobless Claims sets (yet another) record

While some people are still happy that the second derivative of first time jobless claims is flat or negative (for those of you who never took calculus---that means that there are fewer people filing for the first time for unemployment insurance benefits compared to the prior week)---the story of the second derivative of continuing claims isn't as chipper.

As you can see from the chart above---Continuing claims continue to set records. Almost 6.8 million Americans are collecting unemployment insurance benefits--That's more than double from last year---and significantly up from the 2000 low of ~2 million.

Based on this data, you can be sure that the unemployment rate in May 2009 will be north of 9%, and it likely won't be below 7% for years to come.

So much for the "Second Derivative" Green Shoot...

All last week the talking heads on the news and finance channels were talking about how great it was that the second derivative of jobless claims has gone negative. (For those who have forgotten their calculus---that means they were happy that the rate of people losing their jobs and filing for unemployment had decreased from ~650,000/week to ~600,000/week.).

Well today cnn reports that 637,000 initial jobless claims were filed by unemployed workers last week--This is up 32,000 people since last weeks figure. Translation: The second derivative has turned positive (GASP!).

Continuing Claims rose to their highest level on record (since 1967) to ~6.6 million people.

601,000 New Jobless Claims Last Week

According to USA Today 601,000 workers filed for initial unemployment checks last week-->This is the lowest weekly rate in over 14 weeks. And once again it is an indicator that is "less bad than expected"

The amount of workers currently collecting unemployment benefits climbed to a record 6.35 million.

Weekly Jobless Claims on the rise

According to cnn.com the number of initial jobless claims for the week ending April 18th, 2009 was 640,000 individuals---This is an increase from a revised 613,000 initial jobless claims for the week of April 11, 2009.

Continuing claims reached a record 6.14 million Americans collecting unemployment benefits and looking for jobs.

Many pundits seem to think this report is a good thing because the rate of job loss has steadied, I view it differently, losing more than a half million jobs per week isn't good for those families and it's not good for the economy. And when you couple that information with the stories circulating that GM will shut down all their assembly plants for 9 weeks means that thousands more families of auto-workers and suppliers will biting their nails wondering how safe their jobs are.

Initial Jobless Claims reach 667,000

According to the AP the weekly jobless claims report shows 667,000 filing claims last week---This is the larger than expected and the most filers since 1982 (Although there were 1/3 as many workers back then).

Continuing Claims were north of 5 million this week as well.

New Jobless Claims for the week are over 600,000

New jobless claims jump more than expected to 626K

Initial jobless claims surge more than expected to 626,000; continuing claims set new record

WASHINGTON (AP) -- New jobless claims jumped far more than expected last week in an already dismal labor market, and there's no relief in sight for workers as mass layoffs persist.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of laid-off workers seeking jobless benefits rose last week to a seasonally adjusted 626,000, from the previous week's upwardly revised figure of 591,000. The latest total is far more than analysts' expectations of 583,000.

That's also the highest since October 1982, when the economy was in a steep recession, though the work force has grown by about half since then.

The number of people that remained on the unemployment compensation rolls increased slightly to nearly 4.8 million, the most since records began in 1967.

read the rest of the story here

Weekly Jobless Claims Report offers more bad news

US new jobless claims up,continued claims a record

Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:35am EST

WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose 3,000 last week, data on Thursday showed, while so-called continued claims hit the highest level on record as a year-long recession chilled employment.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits increased to a seasonally adjusted 588,000 in the week ended Jan 24 from a revised 585,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast 580,000 new claims versus a previously reported count of 589,000 the week before.

(Reporting by Alister Bull, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Weekly jobless claims data

New Jobless Claims Dropped Last Week; Continuing Claims Rose

WASHINGTON -- New claims for unemployment benefits made a surprisingly large drop last week, the largest in 16 years.

Initial claims for jobless benefits fell by 94,000 to a seasonally adjusted 492,000 in the week ended Dec. 27 from an unrevised 586,000 the week before, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

The number of continuing claims, ...

Weekly Jobless Claims

Today the new weekly jobless claims data was published... The figure for new claims was 554,000. Which is 21,000 less than what it was last month. And the number of people who filed for unemployment insurance last week decreased by 47,000 to 4.3million.

You can watch a CNBC video about these statistics here:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=970487967