Another "unexpected" rise in unemployment claims

[marmar]

By Courtney Schlisserman and Tim Homan


Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- More Americans unexpectedly filed applications for unemployment insurance last week, signaling firings stepped up as the economy slowed.

Initial jobless claims rose by 2,000 to 484,000 in the week ended Aug. 7, the highest level since mid February, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits dropped, while those getting supplemental benefits surged by 1.34 million reflecting the government’s extension of eligibility.

Companies may be losing confidence in the recovery and are hesitant to hire, raising the risk of further erosion in consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy. Federal Reserve policy makers this week said growth “is likely to be more modest” than they previously projected, prompting central bankers to take additional steps to spur a rebound.

“The improvement in the labor market is stalling,” Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said before the report. “The uncertainty in the outlook is going to keep businesses reluctant to hire.”

Stock-index futures extended earlier losses after the report. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.8 percent to 1,076.5 at 8:37 a.m. in New York. Treasury securities were little changed, erasing earlier losses. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a5dD.8bplZ7s&pos=1

[TBF]

1. Sad news. Rec'ed so folks see this. nt

[RainDog]

2. this is not going away. the govt needs a jobs program to build infrastructure

and can pay for it with a tax on capital gains and wealth.

[moksha]

4. That sounds like a ProLeft plan.

I doubt we will see it from our Hard Center government.

[RainDog]

11. it's still the economy...

as Clinton's crew noted.

whether the hard right (right of the Eisenhower administration) in DC gets its head out of its ass or not - who knows.

I do know that it's well worth it to make legislators stay up all night and fight about this - let the American people see who will not vote to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure - let them see who will bail out bankers but not bridge builders.

Personally, I think the right wing economic decisions of the last 30 years have put us on the road to ruin. But I don't want to give up. I don't want to allow the slide into a third-world economy - but practically - I look at DC and see a govt that is incapable of dealing with the problems in this nation b/c of ideological rigidity - because too many in Congress have a religious belief in supply-side bullshit.

It's like watching a procession to the faith-healing waters of Our Lady of the Corporate Fuck You who squeal that we are healed if only jobs may be outsourced.

[KharmaTrain]

3. Fourth Quarter Is Gonna Be Brutal...

This is usually the time we see more hiring...gearing up for the holiday/spending season. Sure doesn't look like the corporates are expecting record sales this year. And they shouldn't. Tight credit has destroyed much of the consumer economy. People are keeping their cars an extra year...or as my mother who grew up during the depression would say "we're making do".

We're stuck in stagflation...an economy that is moving sideways for some, backwards for many and with a dismal fourth quarter that means even more job losses and downsliding into next year.

[xchrom]

5. Will the 'surprizes' never end!?!?!? Nt

[hobbit709]

6. On the Main St. level, the economy isn't doing well.

I see lots of closed small businesses in my side of town.
Used to be the local fishwrap had 20 or more pages of jobs in the Sun paper, now it averages about 6. And about 80% of those listings pay just barely above minimum wage.

And they keep telling us that Austin is doing well.

[knitter4democracy]

7. What do you mean unexpected?!

No one has the money to buy anything, so any company that makes stuff for people to buy or imports stuff for people to buy isn't going to be doing so well. The only people buying anything at this point is the Pentagon, and apparently, we can't do away with that. Tax revenues are down, so anyone with a state or local gov't job is looking at getting the ax or already has, and it's just getting worse.

I'm in Michigan. Our state is dying, and we supposedly led this Depression. I'm barely hanging on, and I know so many who are in the same boat. It's really bad, and yet, no one in Washington seems to give a rat's ass. They all have jobs and money and think the rest of us do, too. Anyone who expected the unemployment rate to go down was an idiot.

[dem mba]

8. is this just the prisoners dilemma at play here?

no company wants to hire because consumer spending is down, yet if all those companies hired, the consumer spending would rise.

seems like an issue with perception.

[Statistical]

12. Pretty much. Also called tragedy of commons.

On the consumer side. Even consumers with jobs are cutting back on consumption. However cutting back on consumption undermines demand and leads to the very job cuts working consumers are fearing.

That being said I track my budget each month and it shows our family consumption is down 10% so we too are contributing to the tragedy of commons. Cut consumption mostly by trading down. I "splurged" recently and pre-ordered a 3rd gen kindle. That was my big purchase for the qtr.

[valerief]

9. Those "magic" jobs just didn't appear, did they? I guess cuz that "magic" money

wasn't made available to create jobs. And we sure as hell know our Congress gives us no magic. Of course, I never did believe in magic anyway. I believe in brainwashing. I can see that working every day.

I wish we had those magic sunglasses like in the movie "They Live". People could "see" the truth when they wore them. We're a nation of the blind, deaf, and most certainly dumb.

[Mayflower1]

10. Dude ...

where did my "recovery summer" go?

This is sad because people are really hurting.

[alc]

13. they need a new "expector"

Who are they asking that thinks this is unexpected? Until we see a consistent trend for many months no move either way should be a surprise.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

14. Sun rises in A.M., experts shocked!...n/t

[amborin]

15. and 2nd Quarter GDP revised and cut in half

[HughBeaumont]

16. Yep, 30 years of Supply Side-o-hol does that to an economy.

Sad that it takes that long for some people to figure this out.

Sadder still is that there are people who actually believe that we need to give this losery system more time, "and it WILL WORK!! You just got to have FAITH in the benevolent FREE MARKETZ!!"