Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Weekly claims continue to improve


First time claims for unemployment plunged last week on a seasonally adjusted basis. The data had been hinting at some significant underlying improvement for the past several weeks, and now it is confirmed. Of course, the drop in claims doesn't mean that businesses are hiring; rather, it means that they are not firing as many people as they ordinarily would be at this time of the year. The next chart, which shows the actual, non-adjusted claims, makes that clear. For the past five years claims have always been on the rise in November, but they have hardly risen at all this year. Regardless, I think it's fair to say that conditions in the labor market are definitely improving.

1 comment:

  1. The 52 week moving average of
    California's non seasonally adjusted jobless claims continues to move lower....if California
    continues in this mode we may have
    a party started....as far as hiring
    the Gallup survey says number of employed is at the high for the year...

    http://www.gallup.com/poll/125639/Gallup-Daily-Workforce.aspx

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