CNBC reported that weekly Initial job claims dropped by 19,000. That is quite an improvement but it is also very misleading. Job claims for the previous week were revised upward by 20,000. So in fact, job claims actually increased by 1,000. The network’s continuing misleading reporting will result in my watching and listening to Fox Business News.
Weekly Initial job claims are revised one week after the initial report when more accurate data is compiled. The weekly revised number dropped to 433,000 in the weeks ending December 26, 2009 and January 2, 2010. It has not been that low since those two weeks. That low number is probably the result of delayed filing due to the holiday season. Last week’s revised 476,000 tells me that high unemployment is likely to be around for quite awhile.
I am not alone in this opinion. This is a quote from Businessweek magazine in the June 14, 2010 issue. “We are not going to generate a lot of jobs. The cost of labor is too high. We are having a huge substitution of technology for people to save money and make profits.” – Allen Sinai, president, Decision Economics, and former chief economist for Lehman Brothers, speaking about the U.S. economy
Coast Contact 