“Stocks fell sharply Thursday after an unexpected spike in jobless claims and as global jitters pushed the dollar higher.” (via CNBC)
More flesh put on the bone by The Washington Post:
New jobless claims filed last week rose by 25,000 to 471,000, the government reported moments ago, defying predictions that they would drop. It’s the largest rise in three months.
The four-week moving average of new jobless claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, rose 3,000 to 453,500.
The official U.S. unemployment rate in April was 9.9 percent, up from 9.7 percent in March. But 290,000 new jobs were added to payrolls, encouraging those who believe a recovery is underway.
Today’s news is less encouraging. Economists say that substantial new job creation won’t happen until the new weekly jobless claims number gets down into the low 400,000s or upper 300,000s and stays there. Right now, it remains frustratingly stuck in the mid-400,000s.
Brilliant minds are thinking, right now, how to spin this as a good thing. Why don’t we just call it a “breakthrough month“?
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Jobs Recovery, We Hardly Knew Ya
Media Still In The Tank For Obama, Big Time
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Comments
Has there ever been a report published by the Obama Administration which did not have Unexpected in the title. They destroy every private job they can and then expect people to find jobs.
I'm not going to put too much weight behind these numbers. Sure, it's a bad thing and it makes Obama look bad, but I still think it's too early for Obama's horrible policies to effect the economy. I think it's too early for the tax hikes at the end of this year to cause people to get fired, but I'm not an economist. Also, I believe jobless claims are notoriously volatile. And by definition, if the economic consensus was off greatly, the data was "unexpected." The real economic turmoil is coming, but too many people expect (hope?) for it to be here immediately. We need to be ready for the inevitable recovery (probably getting here before November) and explain how things would be much better with lower taxes and less spending. And how the initiation of Obamacare will destroy everything, and give us European style growth rates no matter who's in power.
Don't forget that about 3-4 weeks ago, Joe Biden was telling us this:
"All in all, we're going to be creating somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 jobs next month, I predict," Biden was quoted as saying, while acknowledging he "got in trouble" for a job growth prediction in March.
"Even some in the White House said 'Hey, don't get ahead of yourself.' Well I'm here to tell you some time in the next couple of months we're going to be creating between 250,000 jobs a month and 500,000 jobs a month."
http://wherearemykeys.typepad.com/where_are_my_keys/2010/05/can-it-not-be-unexpected-just-one-fing-time.html
What a complete joke of an Administration we have running this Country.
http://www.WhereAreMyKeys.TypePad.com
Madeline's Dad has a great point – to add on that, the Right should be hammering Biden mercilessly about his job claims. Additionally, the Republicans should be hammering this administration about the fact that we are headed for month 18 and worsening in record deficits, record trade deficits, record unemployment, record bank failures, record foreclosures, record spending, record Democrat corruption, a failing dollar, two worsening wars, increasing numbers of terrorist attacks on US soil, etc.
How does the Obama Administration and liberaldom get away with calling themselves brilliant when every month the downside to the economy is called 'unexpected'? I mean if you were brilliant you would be analyzing the government policies that are destroying growth and say, AHA, the sluggish economy is caused by these policies, and so it is completely expected that the recession is dragging on and unemployment is rising. But because that would implicate the intelligence, competence, and ideology of the leftwing democrap rulership, and their fluffers in the lamestream media, every week and month we expect the 'unexpected'. Any republican would be excoriated for sixteen months of 'unexpecteditis'. But with dems, and especially socialist/progressive dems, all is forgiven.