Jobless Claims In US Decline To Match Lowest Since 1973 (bloomberg.com)

Sho Chandra, reporting for Bloomberg: The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly declined last week to match a more than 42-year low, indicating employers are upbeat about an economy that bogged down in the first quarter. Jobless claims dropped by 13,000 to 253,000 in the week ended April 9, equaling the level in March that was the lowest since November 1973, a report from the Labor Department showed Thursday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for 270,000. Continuing claims also declined, to the lowest since mid-October. "Jobless claims are running really low and all other labor market data are telling us that the economy is creating a lot of jobs," said Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. "This is further confirmation that the labor market is strong."

Comments

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[Anonymous Coward]

Or they just fell off the list due to time limitations. I know more than a few who have been unemployed for sooooooo long they are no longer eligible (or counted) as unemployed.

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[Anonymous Coward]

First, your assessment is spot on.

Second, why has "News for Nerds" become MSNBC w/ a green color scheme?

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[Zeio]

Yeah, or we should look at the labor participation rate. Its the worst its been in 40 ish years. This is the percentage of population working. Some try to spin it as people are living longer - but not nearly this much longer for this problem. Also this ends up counting disaffected unemployed. The other issue is that when coming up with a "U" number part timers that want to be full time should count for 1/2 an unemployed person.

New regulations are causing small companies to hire only part timers to get around the regs. They also provide a small business incentive to keep the business under I believe 50 employees. Its a huge crunch and leads to further outsourcing and using contractors.

The reality is we have inflation (for all things required to live, rent, food, tuition, health care, medicine, etc) plus stagnant salaries / wages plus a ton of under-employed but a huge shift from knowledge worker job growth to service job growth which often does not produce a livable wage and is subject to automation and robotics.

We are in a horrific staglfationary crapstorm and its much worse than people thing. People with jobs think its normal. In reality they are very lucky until AI and robotics kicks in more and more over time.

Opening the borders (whether you think its right or wrong) will have consequences to make these numbers get worse over time especially with unfunded liabilities.

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[ShanghaiBill]

and how exactly do they pay their rent or mortgage?

From their spouse's paycheck. Or their parent's. Or their SSDI check.

why are the trains in NYC packed with people going to work every morning?

NYC is not typical. The economy in NYC is booming. Same where I live, in San Jose CA. Everyone that wants a job has one, and many people get regular offers to jump to a new job. But there are many areas in middle America, or even California's central valley, that are economically depressed. One thing that has changed in recent years, is that people are less willing to pull up their roots and move to better opportunities. I am baffled why anyone would choose to stay in someplace like, say, Flint MI, with dysfunctional government, 30% unemployment, horrible weather, and poisoned water, when they can hop on a bus and improve their life in every way.

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[LunaticTippy]

You're so negative and defeatist. 97% of workers now are doing jobs that didn't exist 100 years ago, and I am fully confident that 100 years from now 97% of people will be doing jobs that don't exist now. Who knows what crazy shit people will dream up to busy themselves with when robots and AI do all the menial things?

Immigrants are awesome. They need places to live, stuffs to buy, and they are motivated hard workers. I think if you're worried about lazy do-nothings cluttering up the place we should kick out ignoramuses who were born here and claim to love it but have a super hopeless, fearful, self defeating attitude of failure and impossibility.

Seriously, look at the parts of the country that are thriving. All of them are packed full of immigrants! If shitholes like Kansas could figure out how to kickstart immigration they could get some of that boomtown prosperity going, but they are looking at it all wrong.

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[__aaclcg7560]

My 'employer' didn't pay unemployment or medical premiums for me - nor did they pay the employer's share of social security taxes.

Translation: You're a sole proprietor, not a corporation. Sucker!

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[Shadow99_1]

Among other things I haven't been able to move because I can't afford it. I own a house that is worth maybe 20 or 30k (the housing prices are very low here). Figuring I could sell it (and houses here regularly take multiple years to sell if ever), I certainly can't buy a new home somewhere else. Heck, without managing to sell it I can't even afford an apartment anywhere else.

I get offers for jobs from more than a dozen different states, but I don't know anyone that lives in those places I could bum a room from for a few months... Or have any other means in living in those places so I simply can't take them.

Hm

[fluffernutter]

The number of people employed doesn't really tell the whole story, since most people don't have a choice NOT to work and obviously people who have dropped out of the market don't get counted. Sure as many people employed as in 1973 but quality of employment means everything.

Re:Don't let facts get in your way...

[OhPlz]

Unemployment claims went down, that doesn't mean that unemployment went down. I believe all the extensions that people used to be able to get have since expired, so a lot of people won't even bother to file at all now and will use their savings instead. It's fun with numbers, it's not a measure of the state of the economy.

Methodology

[rlp]

If you count discouraged workers, then the unemployment numbers are still REALLY bad -

http://www.shadowstats.com/alt...

Re:Creative accounting

[NoImNotNineVolt]

Iff the jobless claims went down because they're hiring more, then absolutely sequitur.

Yes, agreed. But since it's not proven that jobless claims went down because they're hiring more, it's non sequitur.

Perhaps jobless claims went down because people have been unemployed for longer than the unemployment benefit duration.

The stated conclusion does not follow from the stated premises. The implied premises (that is, the premises that would need to be stated for the conclusion to follow logically from them) are not stated, likely because stating them explicitly would highlight how likely they are to be false.

MBAs and slimemolds

[bradley13]

"...they've been killed off because, while nicely profitable, they weren't enough of a 'growth opportunity' to be of interest to the private equity guys"

And this is what an MBA will get you: stupid, short-term thinking. I've seen too much of this. "What are your growth projections?". If you answer: "We're a stable, profitable business, we don't expect to grow" the MBA look at you like you just died. Weird. What it is about "stable" and "profitable" that they don't understand? It's not a quick buck. Instead of flipping houses, they want to flip companies. This adds nothing of value to the economy - in fact, it's counterproductive - but it's like gambling: an adrenaline rush and a chance at riches.

Or the marketing equivalent: "What is your USP? How are you build your brand?". If you answer: "We have a high quality product and loyal customers", they look at you like something unpleasant a dog might roll in. They don't want to hear about good products and satisfied customers. No, they want to hear about social media campaigns and rebranding initiatives.

The sad thing is that these people manage to move on to the next company, and escape the blame before the corpse of the previous victim hits the ground.