The news that weekly claims last week were a little higher than expected is relatively insignificant (actual claims are flat over the past 3 months), and is greatly overshadowed by the ongoing decline in the number of people receiving unemployment insurance. Since early last year, the unemployment rolls have shrunk by about 30%, from 11.5 million to just under 7 million, and this is a trend that should continue. What this means is that more people are finding work, and more people are facing increasing incentives (having lost their benefits) to find and accept jobs.
Why don't you plot employment from Jan 2010 up til today and compare with your graph above. You will see about 2 million have been added. Where are the other 2.5 million?
ReplyDeleteHowever, the US employment to population ratio continues to decline -- more at:
ReplyDeletehttp://wjmc.blogspot.com/2011/05/us-employment-to-population-ratio.html