"Jobless Claims Fall To 646K"

[Clio the Leo]

Thomson Reuters

US ECON: Jobless Claims Fall To 646K; Record Cont. Claims

Washington, March 19 - The number of people filing new claims for unemployment insurance fell by 12,000 in the week ending March 14 to 646,000 while the number of those continuing to receive unemployment insurance rose to a new record high, the Labor Department reported today.

Economists were expecting claims to remain unchanged from the 652,000 level first reported for the previous week. That has since been revised up to 658,000.

Labor officials said much of the drop in the seasonally adjusted number was due to a larger than expected decline in unadjusted claims. Officials were expecting an unadjusted decline of 47,000 claims in the week but instead recorded a larger 58,000 decline.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/03/19/afx6187432.html

Again, a little tiny morsel of hope ... but I'll take it!

[leftofthedial]

1. Citizens! The chocolate ration has been increased!

"times 14.2.84 miniplenty malquoted chocolate rectify"



"down" to what would have been the all-time record high until a few weeks ago...
:bounce:

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. Would you be happier if the number had gone up?

Some people are only happy when it rains.

[Teaser]

9. of course.

what else would you expect?

[leftofthedial]

11. would you be happier if stormtroopers stomped every kitten on earth to death?

(which has exactly as much logical relation to my post as did yours)

[Life Long Dem]

2. You wouldn't know watching cable news.

And the market all of a sudden if you notice has taken a back seat.

As if we all don't see the talk out there. :rofl:

[Clio the Leo]

6. I know, the dude on MSNBC just said....

"well, unless we see some GOOD news, this really wont matter."

What is he expecting? An announcement that "there are NO unemployed people in America!" lol

[Dawgs]

3. "Hope" is no longer allowed on this site.

Didn't you get the message?

;)

[Clio the Leo]

4. ha ha! Oh! But change is!

We're all a bunch of change drunks.

If we dont get what we want in five minutes ... CHANGE IT!!! Lol

[Jennicut]

7. Good news...though some are perpetual downers

[uponit7771]

8. Yeap, going into the summer I pray it gets better....

[FrenchieCat]

10. Which is why the media is feeding the Mob some outrage.....

Because the economy is not supposed to get better this quickly. It would make Obama look good, and the GOP economic theories go by the way of dinosaurs.

[JoseGaspar]

12. Grasping for "hope", are we?

Read the rest of the article:

"The four-week moving average for initial claims, which tends to smooth out fluctuations in weekly data, increased by 3,750 to 654,750, the highest level seen since October 1982, a period when the economy was just pulling out of a deep recession.

The number of people continuing to receive unemployment insurance in the week ending March 7 rose by 185,000 to 5.473 mln, a new record high for the series. This is the eighth consecutive week that continuing claims have set a new record high. Economists were expecting only 5.328 mln claims in the survey week.

The smoother four-week moving average for continuing claims rose 118,750 to 5.25 mln, also a new record high."

You've managed to make the article stand on its head.

"Hope" is fine but reality is essential.

[PBS Poll-435]

13. People were too busy getting ready for spring break to make it down to the Unemployement office.

:sarcasm: