Updates
Later, 10:54 am: Aha! It wasn't Sandy after all! The worst-hit states: Ohio and Pennsylvania, the swing states! In fact, there was a decline in jobless claims in one of the two states hardest hit by Sandy: New York (I cannot make this stuff up):
Some of the new claims, especially in New Jersey, were due to Hurricane Sandy--but these were offset by a decline in claims filed in New York. The highest numbers of new filings came from Pennsylvania and Ohio, where there were thousands of layoffs in the construction, manufacturing, and automobile industries.
Both states had been targeted by the presidential campaigns. President Obama highlighted his record of job creation in Ohio in particular, focusing on the automobile industry. The state reported 6,450 new jobless claims in the week after the election--second-highest after Pennsylvania, which recorded 7,766 new claims.But at least the folks in Ohio and Pennsylvania are content/satisfied; they voted overwhelmingly to re-elect the
Original Post
No link regarding the Eurozone recession; it was a foregone conclusion, predictable; one can find stories everywhere but it's not worth a headline. Dog bites man story.
Remember: the magic number is 400,000
I had not planned to blog any more the weekly jobless rates; the numbers no longer mean anything to me; they are irrelevant. Americans are content/satisfied; the President won in a landslide (yes, it was a landslide by current definition of landslides in American politics; no lawyers were needed to count chads which says it all, but I digress). But when I see a headline that says the jobless number soars, it's impossible not to post it for archival purposes. So, here it is. Blame it on Sandy. Don't blame it on the President. There will be plenty of time for that next summer.
Super storm Sandy drove U.S. weekly jobless claims up to 439,000, while consumer prices rose slightly last month as higher rents and costlier food offset cheaper gasoline.So, the magic number is 400,000. What were the numbers last week? 439,000. Due to Sandy. The highest level in 18 months.
Boiler plate: the four-week average of applications, a less volatile number, increased to 383,750.
And then a bit of accurate reporting, without spin, now that the election is over:
Before the storm distorted the figures, weekly applications had fluctuated between 360,000 and 390,000 since January. At the same time, employers have added an average of nearly 157,000 jobs a month. That's barely enough to lower the unemployment rate, which was 7.9 percent in October.And then next week, or will be it the next week? I don't have a calendar in front me: the jobless claims will soar again, taking analysts by surprise. They will blame it on Thanksgiving.
Any bets on the unemployment figure next summer. My hunch: the 29-hour work week will be rescinded. Even that's a bridge too far. The only reason the 29-hour work week is talked about now is because no one read the ObamaCare plan before they voted for it. The Scott Brown legacy.
Stands to reason since both sides hired a ton of people for the election.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how that works. Most of the workers, of course, are volunteers. I don't know if one can qualify for jobless benefits working for a political campaign that comes to an end. Perhaps.
DeleteMy hunch is the Sandy jobless claims are yet to surface. Most of those folks are too busy trying to survive to find an unemployment office (no doubt closed) to file the necessary paperwork. A lot of people probably don't even know yet if they will still have a job where Sandy hit.
But to blame the soaring unemployment numbers solely on Sandy is disingenuous. Thank goodness for the internet.