Today: Jobless Claims Drop To 346,000; Looking Ahead: Jobs Report Friday

This week, Business Insider is reporting: Jobless claims were revised upward, up to 357,000. This past week, they fell to 346,000.

Economists were predicting a slightly larger drop to 345,000.

Continuing claims fell to 2.952 million during the week ended May 25 from an upward-revised 3.004 million the week before.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting:

Expectations around this Friday's nonfarm-payrolls report are for growth of about 170,000 jobs. Mr. Saperstein figures anything below 220,000 to 240,000 won't fully convince traders the economy is strong enough to keep expanding without the Fed's help. On the other hand, a number below 100,000 might leave the Fed looking impotent.

So, we'll see tomorrow.

The magic number used to be 200,000 (before Obama, BO). Now, the magic number seems to be a bit of a moving target, depending who is reporting the story. The number has gotten as low as 120,000, and in this story, it's now 100,000 with regard to the Fed.

Looking farther ahead: for jobs, look at the perfect storm -- sequester effects hit jobs later this year and employers start cutting more quickly in the autumn as we move toward the Train Wreck.