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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RMF who wrote (9927)	3/26/2009 9:29:50 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 103300

US Jobless Claims Rise 8K To 652K In Week New U.S. claims for state unemployment benefits rise 8,000 to 652,000 in the week, as expected, while total claims soar to a record high over 5.5 million, suggesting the economy continues to shed jobs at a rapid clip.Initial claims for state jobless benefits advanced 8,000 to 652,000 in the week ended March 21, the Labor Department said in a weekly report Thursday. Wall Street economists in a Dow Jones Newswires survey had expected a 9,000 rise. The prior week's level was revised down slightly. The four-week average -- which aims to smooth volatility -- slid for the first time in 10 weeks, though by only 1,000 to 649,000. That's still near quarter-century highs. Thursday's data included new calculations used by government statisticians to account for seasonal fluctuations in the weekly data. Those seasonal adjustments go back to 2004, but according to a Labor Department analyst, "it's not really moving the numbers one way or another." The U.S. has lost 4.4 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007, with almost half of those losses coming in the last three months alone including the largest monthly drop in six decades in December, 681,000, followed by declines in excess of 650,000 in both January and February. The latest jobless claims figures point to another decline of that magnitude in March, which should push the unemployment rate -- already a 25-year high of 8.1% -- up even more. The labor figures come amid signs, albeit very tentative ones, that the economy may be stabilizing despite what's likely to be another steep economic contraction in the first quarter. Home sales and durable goods orders climbed in February from very low levels, and consumers appear to have found their footing somewhat at the beginning of 2009 after a miserable holiday shopping season. But the longer that employment declines, the harder for it is for good news on the economy to be sustained. According to Thursday's Labor Department report, the tally of continuing jobless claims -- those drawn by workers collecting benefits for more than one week in the week ended March 14 -- jumped another 122,000 to 5,560,000, the highest level since the government started keeping track in 1967. Continuing claims are up over one million since the start of the year, a reflection of how much longer people are staying unemployed during this recession. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for workers with unemployment insurance rose 0.1 percentage point to 4.2%, according to Thursday's report, the highest since May 1983. Not adjusted to reflect seasonal fluctuations, Tennessee reported the largest increase in new claims during the March 14 week, 1,394, due to layoffs in the trade, service and manufacturing industries. California reported the biggest decrease, 8,555, due to fewer layoffs in construction and services.