US JOBLESS CLAIMS RISE TO 386K

[Geee]

Big Government:

 

More Americans sought unemployment aid last week, suggesting hiring remains sluggish.

The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly unemployment benefit applications rose 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 386,000, an increase from an upwardly revised 380,000 the previous week.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose for the third straight week to 382,000. That's the highest in six weeks.

Weekly applications are a measure of the pace of layoffs. When they drop below 375,000, it typically suggests hiring is strong enough to reduce the unemployment rate.

Applications fell steadily during the fall and winter but have since leveled off.

At the same time, hiring has slowed, raising concerns about the pace of the recovery. Employers added an average of only 96,000 jobs per month in the past three months. That's down from an average of 252,000 in the previous three months.

Weaker hiring also pushed up the unemployment rate in May to 8.2 percent, its first rise in nearly a year.

Faster job creation is crucial in order to accelerate growth. More jobs mean more income for consumers, which may lead to higher spending. Consumer spending fuels about 70 percent of the economy.

Many economists blame the slowdown in hiring partly on the unusually warm winter. Companies moved up some hiring in January and February that normally would have occurred in spring. As that trend fades, job gains might recover in the coming months.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week that the warm winter might be a reason for the slowdown in hiring. He also suggested that the burst of job gains earlier this year could have represented a "catch-up in hiring" by employers who cut too deeply in the recession.

In that case, stronger economic growth would be needed to boost hiring further, Bernanke said.

[pollyannaish]

Another one of my former colleagues was laid off this morning. That makes seven in the last six weeks or so. No one that I know that is unemployed has been hired.

 

This is not over by any stretch. I don't care what the "we're going in the right direction" people say. There is a wet blanket over the economy and to blame it on the weather is about as dumb as blaming the weather on us.

[RidesAPaleHorse]

But..........but...............

 

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