Initial jobless claims jump by 24,000
posted at 9:30 am on April 15, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
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No one can claim that major storms are now contributing to spikes in
unemployment, as the administration did in February. Just two weeks
after claiming a major victory from jobless figures assisted mainly by
government hiring, initial jobless claims spiked upward sharply again
<http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/current.htm>. Is this an
opportunity for wire services to use their favorite adverb? (h/t Desmond
Lee)
In the week ending April 10, the advance figure for seasonally
adjusted initial claims was 484,000, an increase of 24,000 from the
previous week's unrevised figure of 460,000. The 4-week moving
average was 457,750, an increase of 7,500 from the previous week's
unrevised average of 450,250.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.6
percent for the week ending April 3, an increase of 0.1 percentage
point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 3.5 percent.
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment
during the week ending April 3 was 4,639,000, an increase of 73,000
from the preceding week's revised level of 4,566,000. The 4-week
moving average was 4,638,500, a decrease of 13,750 from the
preceding week's revised average of 4,652,250.
The news looked worse for the unadjusted figures:
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs,
unadjusted, totaled 514,742 in the week ending April 10, an increase
of 99,730 from the previous week. There were 610,522 initial claims
in the comparable week in 2009.
This comes as the federal government continues its Census Bureau hiring
binge, which means that the private sector shedding of jobs is
accelerating even more. We're getting back to the rate of loss from
2009, and getting farther from net job creation even without considering
the additional 100,000 new people that join the work force on average
each month.
So which wire services will use a form of the word "unexpected" this
time? The AP
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100415/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy;_ylt=AmXcoQkwaVzzvFs2Ma96ON6s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNhOWxqODBoBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNDE1L3VzX2Vjb25vbXkEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwMzBHBvcwM5BHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNqb2JsZXNzY2xhaW0->
waits until its third paragraph:
It marked the second week that claims took an *unexpected* leap. In
the prior week, claims rose by 18,000 to 460,000.
They also report that the administration didn't blame it on the weather
this time ... but on Jesus Christ:
A government analyst, however, cautioned against reading too much
into both weeks' figures, saying they were clouded by seasonal
adjustment difficulties related to the Easter holiday, which falls
on different weeks each year.
And the AP gets in its spin:
Even with the increases over the last two weeks, the trend in claims
have been slowly drifting downward. Fewer people overall have been
seeking unemployment insurance as the job market recovers.
For instance, for the same week a year ago, first-time claims
totaled 609,000, compared with the current 484,000. Applications for
jobless claims peaked during the recession at 651,000 in late March
2009.
True, but deceptive. The number has been going mainly up over the last
two months, and hasn't been descending at all since 2009. In fact, this
report is slightly/ worse/ than in January, when the level rose to
482,000 ... "unexpectedly."
<http://hotair.com/archives/2010/01/21/jobless-claims-unexpectedly-rise-again/>
*Update*: The Texas Rainmaker
<http://www.texasrainmaker.com/2006/05/24/the-clueless-are-surprised-again/>
remembers when the "unexpected" was on the other foot. I guess this
means that the media just aren't eternal optimists, then ...
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