Jobs

When Awful Jobless Claims Looks Good

The Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims fell a sharp 31,000 to 473,000 in the last week, something which which may be a relief to many hoping that the trend can reverse.  Last week’s preliminary 500,000 claims was revised to 504,0000. …

By Jon C. Ogg
Published August 26, 2010, 8:34am ET · 1 min read

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The Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims fell a sharp 31,000 to 473,000 in the last week, something which which may be a relief to many hoping that the trend can reverse.  Last week’s preliminary 500,000 claims was revised to 504,0000.  Bloomberg had estimates of 495,000 and Dow Jones was 490,000 for this week’s claims.

The four week average rose by only 3,250 to 486,750, but that is the highest reading of 2010.

The army of unemployed measured by the continuing jobless claims fell by 62,000 to 4,456,000.

A few less pink slips doesn’t change the fact that this is still very much going in the wrong direction in general at a time when employment recovery was supposed to be underway.  At least it wasn’t worse.

JON C. OGG

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Jon C. Ogg

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.

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