Remember that number. 1,091,000. That is the number (until it is revised upward as last week’s numbers were) of people filing initial unemployment claims in the past two weeks.
More than one million Americans out of work in two weeks. The happy, fuzzy, feel-good pronouncements: Things are getting better!
The number of Americans filing initial unemployment insurance claims fell to the lowest level in six months, according to government data released Thursday — but the drop may be attributable to quirks in the auto industry rather than improvement in the economy.
There were 522,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended July 11, down 47,000 to from a revised-up 569,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said. The number of claims was the lowest since the 488,000 claims reported in the week ended Jan. 3, a week that included the New Year holiday.
The number was much less than the consensus estimate of 553,000 from economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 584,500, down 22,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 607,000.
The problem: the “improvement” is an illusion caused by a ginned up “seasonal adjustment” that is no longer true – if it ever was:
”The annual auto retooling shutdowns almost certainly explain the sudden dive in claims,” agreed Ian Shepherdson, economist at High Frequency Economics, in a research note. “The shutdowns happen every year, but GM (GMGMQ) and Chrysler started early this year.”
Shepherdson said he expected a “hefty rebound” in new claims over the next few weeks, as “the latest numbers are just far too good to be true.”
Now for the bad – really bad – news:
Continuing claims: The government said 6,273,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended July 4, the most recent data available. The week included the Independence Day holiday.
That’s down 642,000 from the preceding week’s revised 6,915,000 claims.
The 4-week moving average for ongoing claims fell to 6,666,750, down 110,250 from the preceding week’s revised average of 6,777,000.
Does anyone think those 642,000 people magically found employment when some 522,000 were just thrown out of work? Or do you think it more likely that they ran out of unemployment benefits? These numbers indicate that the latter reason is much, much more likely:
The foreclosure plague is not going away — it’s only getting worse.
A record 1.53 million properties were in the foreclosure process — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — during the first six months of 2009. That was 9% more than the previous six months and 15% more than the same period of 2008, according to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac.
Instead of fixing the economy, the Democrats, urged on by Barack Obama, put out a pork-stuffed funding/reward supporters plan rather than any real stimulus. Now they are intent on spending even more and taking control of much of people’s lives.
And of course, there’s the looming giant tax increases to pay for all this.
They are killing the economy. Outright.
Ask the 1,091,000 how much hope they are feeling right now.
And the American public is sitting passively by and letting them do it. Many of them are still cheering on the Obamessiah and his disciples while the nation crumbles around them. A friend of mine keeps saying that Obama is the Anti-Christ. I am not religious at all but I do have to admit he fits a lot of the description given in Revelations. If I believed in the possibility of an Anti-Christ he would certainly be my candidate.