Two weeks ago, unemployment numbers were released supposedly showing a jobs recovery, leading the New York Times and others to cheer how we had turned the corner. Steve Benen at Washington Monthly declared that this was a “breakthrough month” (rah-rah).
As I discussed at the time, even the NY Times had to admit (several paragraphs into its article) that the numbers were skewed by census temporary hiring and weather-related changes.
Not surprisingly, the numbers just released show that unemployment claims “unexpectedly” rose again:
New weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rose by 24,000 to 484,000 last week, the government said this morning, increasing worries that high unemployment will stick around for a long time.
Forecasters had expected the new jobless claims number to come in at 430,000.
The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility in the number, rose by 7,500 last week to 457,750.
Continuing claims rose from 4.57 million to 4.64 million.
Not so rah-rah.
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