Jobless claims are at an all time high. Nevertheless, the number of new jobless claims got a small reprieve just lately. The common theme of employment has been of becalmed waters, though a small reprieve was because of the census and seasonal hires for the holiday retail season. The housing market is still in the basement; nevertheless some good news about employment is a welcome change. The unemployment rate is virtually unchanged since November 2009, so this happy news is an empty victory if anything. As word of the mild respite broke, stock markets were given a slight boost.
Unemployed cases decrease
A drop was recorded within the number of new cases for unemployment benefits by the Department of Labor. The number of jobless claims still sits, adjusted seasonally, at 473,000, however that number dropped by 31,000 over the last week. The past four weeks, according to Forbes, average out to unemployed cases of 486,750, which are the highest since November 2009. That said, winter jobless claims have to be taken with a grain of salt, as holiday seasonal employment provides a slight spike for the busiest part of the retail year. There was also the U.S. census, which temporarily employed lots of people.
Unemployed claims spur stock exchange increase
As outlined by the Wall Street Journal, the news did some urgent good. It gave stock exchanges a very modest increase. The uptick was modest at best; the greatest gain was a .3 percent boost for Standard and Poor’s. The Nasdaq climbed only .2 percent, and also the Dow Jones managed a paltry .1 percent gain. The big news on Wall Street recently has nothing to do with unemployment cases though. The large story right now is the bidding wars for 3Par, which Dell appears to be winning. There’s a large bidding war going on, and it’s even bigger news than the Potash saga. Hewlett Packard and Dell are fighting it out for 3Par, and it is causing a huge firestorm of coverage.
A long way to begin before we are done
The data released just means a modest fall in unemployment claims. Fewer employers are presently hiring. To make matters worse, it’s estimated that 10 percent of homeowners may face foreclosure. The real estate market is completely within the tank.
Further reading
Forbes
forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/08/26/real-estate-industrials-us-economy_7879865.html
Wall Street Journal
online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100826-709681.html
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