Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi's US Economist on the Unemployment Picture

On February 5th, Bloomberg interviewed Ellen Zentner, Senior US economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. to discuss the January unemployment rate and the outlook for the US Labor Market.

Ellen's views include:

• "the labor market is definitely improving, we got a bigger downward revision to payroll data, leading up to today... No we lost 8.4 million jobs vs over 7 million... And this contraction in jobs correlates more to the decline in consumer spending."
• In january's report the comments are suspicious because jobs aren't being created, yet the unemployment rate drops. Looking at labor force participation, you see that household employment has increased. But you also need to know how many people dropped out of the labor market all together.
• We have record numbers of discouraged workers and many of them are permanently lost---but thousands will come back into the labor market.
• The data is showing some job gains in some areas---but it isn't happening in all sectors of the economy. January saw the first increase in manufacturing jobs in over 3 years.
• Forward looking indicators show that part-time and contract jobs should improve in the next few months---This isn't as good as landing higher paying full time jobs.
• The labor market will wadddle along for a little bit, because you have create jobs for the previously displaced and the teenagers that are becoming working aged adults---this isn't going to happen for some time.
  

Is the Jobs situation getting better in Pennsylvania?

According to recent reports the number of people collecting unemployment insurance in the state of Pennsylvania has dropped by 7,000 over the last week.

According to the Department of Labor, now ~364,000 Pennsylvanians are recieving benefits---while that number is around twice as bad as last year, the fact that it's down from the prior week is actually a good sign.

Weekly Jobless Claims Report

According to data released today the weekly initial jobless claims continue to be greater than 650,000.

654,000 jobs were the week ending March 7, 2009, this raises the 4 week moving average of jobless claims to 650,000. And continuing jobless claims has set a record at 5.32 million workers.

Debit Cards used in place of unemployment checks rip-off the jobless

According to the AP there are 30 states that use or require the usage of debit cards so that the jobless can get their weekly unemployment compensation.

Large banks like Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and US Bancorp strike deals with the states and then frequently charge fees on the jobless ranging from a $0.50 "balance check" fee to a $20 over-draft fee. The over-draft fee is especially hurtful, b/c the the banks could just as easily prevent an overdraft from occurring by issuing an "insufficient funds" message at the ATM.

The banks justify these fees as a convenience---but nickel and diming the jobless isn't the best way to start or maintain a banking relationship.

Weekly jobless claims jump to 26-year high

Weekly jobless claims jump to 26-year high

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits surged to a 26-year high last week, Labor Department data showed on Thursday, as a deepening recession forced employers to cut back on hirings.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits jumped by 58,000, the biggest increase since September 2005, to a seasonally adjusted 573,000 in the week ended December 6 from an upwardly revised 515,000 the previous week. That was the highest print since November 1982, when 612,000 workers submitted new claims for unemployment benefits.

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(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Walker Simon)