http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/21/news/economy/unemployment-benefits/index.html?iid=SF_E_River
A report from the Labor Department showed that there is an increase in the number of Americans filed for jobless benefits from 342,000 in the previous week to 362,000 in the latest week. However, taking into account the impact of short-term blips that can be caused by weather and other special events, economists suggest that we look at the four-week average figure. Having said that, the average number of people seeking help over the past four weeks totaled 360,750, up 8,000 from the four-week average the previous week. This is not necessarily bad, considering that these figures are lower than they were a year ago. What it is telling us is that the improvements in the economy have been very gradual and slow. As mentioned in the article, the figures have been hovering in the 350,000 to 400,000 range, which is consistent with the US economy's adding 180,000 jobs each month. However, that is simply not enough to keep up with the population growth and certainly not enough to impose a significant decrease in the the unemployment rate.
It might be possible that more people are coming out of the discouraged portion of adult working age people and that is contributing to the rise in benefits as well.
ReplyDeleteOverall unemployment has been a major issue lately and needs to continue to be addressed. Obama asking the other day to raise the minimum wage could have an effect and it will be interesting to see if it happens or not and the effect it does have. The economic situation, although improving, is still poor and the unemployment rates show that.
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