New Jobless Claims Up 445,000 … Biggest One Week Jump in Six Months

The reality of the poor economy …

Jobless claims jump to 445,000 , as the experts say unexpectedly. Unexpected?  Did anyone really believe the economy was getting better when the national unemployment rate fell from 9.8% to 9.4% last month? Really? You do not gain a mere 103K jobs and have an unemployment rate go down that much without Americans just giving up on looking for jobs.  The four week moving average of new claims, which strips out short term volatility in the data, rose by 5,500 to 416,500.

U.S. jobless claims jumped unexpectedly last week to their highest level since October, suggesting the labor market is still in a rut despite signs of improvement in the economy.

The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose to 445,000 from an upwardly revised reading of 410,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. It was the biggest one-week jump in about six months, confounding analyst forecasts for a small drop to 405,000.

A Labor Department official noted the rebound occurred following the holidays, which may have hindered reporting of new claims and created a backlog.

There should have been no cause for cheers from the Obama administration last month with a 9.4% unemployment rate. Any one who knows better knows that a realistic unemployment rate is closer to 18-19%.