It has been a while since the number of new jobless claims dropped. The last six months are somewhat dismal for employment, though temporary boosts were provided by seasonal employment around the holidays and also the U.S. census. Good news is better than bad news. Housing, the other area that is bad off, is still within the basement. That said, it isn’t cause to celebrate as unemployment is as bad as it has ever been, having held since November of 2009. The news made Wall Street happy, as markets climbed ever so slightly when the news broke.
Brand new jobless cases decrease a bit
There was a reduction in new unemployed claims for unemployment benefits, says the Department of Labor. The number of jobless claims still sits, adjusted seasonally, at 473,000, but that number dropped by 31,000 over the last week. The past four weeks, as outlined by Forbes, average out to jobless cases of 486,750, which are the highest since November 2009. That said, winter jobless claims have to be taken with a grain of salt, as holiday seasonal employment provides a slight spike for the busiest part of the retail year. The United States Census also employed a fair amount of individuals seasonally.
Little boost with regard to stock exchange
As outlined by the Wall Street Journal, the news did some instant good. It gave stock exchanges a very modest increase. The largest increase was .3 percent for Standard and Poor’s, a barely mentionable gain. The Nasdaq climbed only .2 percent, and the Dow Jones managed a paltry .1 percent gain. The big news on Wall Street recently has nothing to do with unemployment cases though. The big story right now is the bidding wars for 3Par, which Dell seems to be winning. A bidding war between Dell and Hewlett-Packard for 3 Par has been the huge story on Wall Street over the last week, after last week’s rampant coverage of Potash Corp.
Not much improvement
The data released just means a small fall in unemployment claims. Fewer employers are at the moment hiring. The real estate market has been nothing short of dismal, and it is estimated that 10 percent of all homeowners are at risk of foreclosure.
Additional reading
Forbes
forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/08/26/real-estate-industrials-us-economy_7879865.html
Wall Street Journal
online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100826-709681.html
