Merry Christmas. Now clean out your desk. On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, new government data showed the number of U.S. jobless claims jumped 30,000 to a 26-year high last week.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 586,000 in the week ending December 20th. This was the highest since the week ending November 27, 1982, when initial jobless claims rose 612,000. Analysts had expected 560,000.
Despite this bad news, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 49 points to 8468.
The four-week moving average, a btter indictor of long-term trends, showed a rise to 558,000 for the period ending Dec. 20th, compared with 544,250 the prior week.
The insured unemployment rate was unchanged from last week at 3.3%, which means 4.37 million Americans were receiving unemployment insurance over the past week.
One thing these figures always forget is the number of "underemployed" as well as though off the unemployment insurance rolls but still jobless.
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
