Washington – The number of people requesting unemployment benefits last week plunged to a nearly three-year low, bolstering hopes that companies will hire more this year.
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The government says applications for unemployment benefits fell by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 368,000. It was the third decline in the last four weeks. Applications are now at their lowest level since late May 2008.
Applications below 425,000 tend to signal modest job growth. But they would need to dip consistently to 375,000 or below to indicate a significant decline in the unemployment rate. Applications for benefits peaked during the recession at 651,000.
Wait till we find out that the reason it fell was because these people gave up on employment. Its bad out there with no help in sight – until the 2012 election. That’s when we remove the current regime with one that appreciates the country and our businesses.
This is an honest question : Isn’t the real reason for the drop the fact that you can only get unemploytment for a specific amount of time and most of unemployed people already expired their benefits ? So how does this report indicate a decline in unemployment ?
To #1 - It can’t be that the reason why applications for unemployment benefits are down is because people gave up on employment. Just the opposite if people give up on employment they tend to rely more on unemployment benefits.
Wait till next report where “unexpected” rise in the number of people filing for unemployment.
You people aren’t getting the point. Unemployment hasn’t dropped. What has dropped is the number of NEW applications for unemployment. Instead of adding the expected 425,000 NEWLY unemployed people to the unemployment roll, there are only 368,000 NEWLY unemployed people added to the millions already getting unemployment.
The way these things are phrased makes us think the unemployment situation is getting better but what I’d like to know is how many of the millions of people who have/had been getting unemployment benefits in the past 3-4 years are now gainfully unemployed.
can anyone out there in the work force HONESTLY say things are looking better?
I didn’t think so either.
There is no more $$$ to give but wait till Bloomy fires the firemen amd teachers, etc. then it will go right back up!!