Another Incredible Bit of Spinning By the Mainstream Media on Jobs -- Not a Bakken Story

Mainstream media spin: Wall Street isn't buying it: not only has the market been down 8 out of the lat 9 sessions, today's drop of 500 points was the most in a very, very long time, and there is nothing to suggest that it won't drop farther. It's not worth the time to link the stories, but there are numerous articles today suggesting that neither the administration nor the Federal Reserve has any more arrows in its quiver, or tools in its toolkit to try to improve the unemployment numbers. Nada. Zilch. None.

Headline: Unemployment Applications Tick Down to 400K.

The actual numbers:

Weekly applications for unemployment benefits edged down 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 400,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's the lowest level in four months. The previous week's figure was revised upward from 398,000 to 401,000.

This is how the mainstream media interprets that exceptional piece of news, that unemployment benefits edged down from 401,000 to 400,000:

...a sign the job market may be improving slowly.

And just in case the reader missed that point the first time, the writer says it again:

The four-week average, a less volatile figure, dropped for the fifth straight week to 407,750. That suggests there is a downward trend in layoffs.

It will be interesting to see how they interpret the numbers that come out next week.

I doubt a drop from 401,000 to 400,000 is either reproducible or statistically significant. And obviously, the weekly applications number is a "rounded" number to begin with.