Initial Jobless Claims in U.S. Unexpectedly Climbed Last Week

[TacticalPeek]

Source: BusinessWeek

Initial Jobless Claims in U.S. Unexpectedly Climbed Last Week

February 04, 2010, 08:32 AM EST


By Timothy R. Homan and Bob Willis

Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- More Americans unexpectedly filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, indicating companies lack confidence the economic recovery will be sustained.

Initial jobless applications increased to 480,000 in the week ended Jan. 30, the most in seven weeks, from 472,000 the prior week, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The number of people receiving unemployment insurance was little changed and those receiving extended benefits increased.

...

Continuing claims were little changed at 4.6 million in the week ended Jan. 23. The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.

Today’s report showed the number of people who’ve used up their traditional benefits and are now collecting extended payments increased by about 242,000 to 5.86 million in the week ended Jan. 16.


Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-04/initial-jobless-claims-in-u-s-unexpectedly-climbed-last-week.html

[Robb]

1. "Unexpectedly."

Surprise! :eyes:

[peacefreak]

2. The hemorrhaging has stopped,

but the bleeding continues.

[Po_d Mainiac]

3. State/local gov't budget cuts are starting to be seen. n/t

[earthside]

4. This is impossible.

GDP went up 10,000 percent last quarter.

The recession is over ... these companies still laying folks off apparently haven't gotten the word yet.




:sarcasm:

[tomm2thumbs]

9. I know, why don't these people just listen!

They need to stop looking for jobs - it is getting embarrassing now - I mean, haven't they heard?

[AngryAmish]

5. In what way was this unexpected?

Listen, sherlock, the economy is in the toilet now. Job losses are expected.

[Subdivisions]

7. Well aren't you just the sweetest thing...

For your information, Sherlock, it wasn't TacticalPeek who is saying that the numbers are "unexpected". It says right in the article: "More Americans unexpectedly filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, indicating companies lack confidence the economic recovery will be sustained."

What you seem to not understand is that, since this financial/economic crisis began, the terms "unexpectedly lost/gained", "not as bad as expected", "good but could be better", "better than expected", and so on, have become part of the financial/economic reporting landscape. We have a joke about it on the trading forums: bad is the new good.

[TacticalPeek]

10. The DU rules for Latest Breaking News require posting the exact headline, Watson.

Check it out
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=102

In the unlikely case that you are actually interested, the 'unexpectedness' can be understood from an article at the same source from shortly before the announcement:

A Labor Department report Thursday is forecast to show new requests for unemployment insurance dropped by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 460,000, according to Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9DLAO8O0.htm

The basis is explained at the link.

[njlib]

6. So does this mean they're going to do something about

extending the emergency program? From what I understand, whatever tier you're on at the end of February is IT. You finish out that tier and then get nothing! How can they let that stand when so many millions of people are still in such dire need?

[bemildred]

8. Dang, the expecters expected wrong again! nt

[OhioChick]

11. No surprise here. n/t