Surprise! Jobless Claims Up 78,000 Week After Election; PA, OH Worst Hit

[longknife]

The Department of Labor has announced that new jobless claims rose by a staggering 78,000 in the first week after the election, reaching a seasonally-adjusted total of 439,000. Over the past year, and in the weeks leading up to the election, jobless claims were said to be declining, dipping as low as 339,000, with the media proclaiming that they had reached the "lowest level in more than four years." Now, suddenly, the news seems far less rosy.

From the Department of Labor press release this morning:

In the week ending November 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 439,000, an increase of 78,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 361,000. The 4-week moving average was 383,750, an increase of 11,750 from the previous week's revised average of 372,000.

Some of the new claims, especially in New Jersey, were due to Hurricane Sandy--but these were offset by a decline in claims filed in New York. The highest numbers of new filings came from Pennsylvania and Ohio, where there were thousands of layoffs in the construction, manufacturing, and automobile industries.

Both states had been targeted by the presidential campaigns. President Obama highlighted his record of job creation in Ohio in particular, focusing on the automobile industry. The state reported 6,450 new jobless claims in the week after the election--second-highest after Pennsylvania, which recorded 7,766 new claims.

I want to laugh and say, “I toldya so.” But it's really too sad.[/B

 

[waltky]

Granny wonderin' what her Halliburton stock doin'?...

Stock Futures Flat After Jobless Claims Data
11/21/12 --- U.S. stock futures were trading near the flat line Wednesday after domestic weekly initial jobless claims came in as expected and as discussions on Greece hit an impasse

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 3 points, or 6.96 points below fair value, at 12,756. Futures for the S&P 500 were up 1.29 points, or 3.36 points above fair value, at 1387. Futures for the Nasdaq were up 2 points, or 1.12 points above fair value, at 2595. The major U.S. equity averages closed mixed Tuesday, paring losses that followed in the wake of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke weighing in on the fiscal cliff. Eurozone finance ministers, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank failed at their meeting this week to reach a consensus on how Greece could achieve debt sustainability and a lowering of the financing gap of €14 billion through 2014; they were aiming for an agreement to be reached before unlocking additional financial aid for Greece.

Talks are scheduled to reconvene on Monday. "Judging by the reaction of futures this morning, investors share our sense of 'ho hum' about the Greece news," said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG. "It's important to remember that the ultimate goal of these negotiations is to reduce the debt burden to somewhere around 120% of GDP. That is a terribly high number and the math used to get Greece to that debt level is ambitious despite the considerable progress that Greece has made over the last several years." "Ultimately, we like many others see no way Greece can return to debt sustainability without further write downs of outstanding debt, including obligations in the hands of the public sector," he added.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims for the week ended Nov. 17 fell 41,000 to an as-expected 410,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised figure of 451,000. The four-week moving average was 396,250, an increase of 9,500 from the previous week's average of 386,750. Continuing claims for the week ended Nov. 10 fell 30,000 to 3.337 million from the prior week's upwardly revised level of 3.367 million. Economists, on average, were expecting continuing claims to come in at 3.345 million. "Jobless claims remained above the 400k mark despite the sharp 41k drop in the pace of initial jobless filings to 410k," said Millan Mulraine, an economist at TD Securities. "The decline comes on the heels of the upwardly revised pop to 451k the week before. The elevated level of claims is due in part to the continuing impact of Hurricane Sandy, which will likely continue to distort the data for another few weeks."

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims for the week ended Nov. 17 fell 41,000 to an as-expected 410,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised figure of 451,000. The four-week moving average was 396,250, an increase of 9,500 from the previous week's average of 386,750. Continuing claims for the week ended Nov. 10 fell 30,000 to 3.337 million from the prior week's upwardly revised level of 3.367 million. Economists, on average, were expecting continuing claims to come in at 3.345 million. At 9:55 a.m., the final read on University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for November is forecast to come in at 84.5, down from the 84.9 preliminary reading. At 10 a.m., the Conference Board's leading economic indicators index is expected to have risen 0.2% in October after increasing by 0.6% in September. The FTSE 100 in London was down 0.06%, while the DAX in Germany was up 0.06%. Japan's Nikkei average settled up 0.87% on Wednesday and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed higher by 1.39%. Gold for December delivery was up $2.70 at $1,726.30 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, while January crude oil contracts were up 81 cents at $87.56.

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[Trajan]

its to early to tell, the data will come out first Friday In December. they will have the manuf. sector no;'s specifically, we'll see.

 

[rdean]

From 2001 to 2008, Republicans, working with the Chamber of Commerce and funded by China helped move millions of jobs to China and close down tens of thousands of factories. Those jobs are gone. They won't be returning. Two weeks ago, they tried to elect a "pioneer of outsourcing" into office. A man who was moving one of his companies to China the very month of the election.

Republicans ran on a platform of "Government Can't Create Jobs" and have stood in the way of every single thing this president has tried to do.

But still, in spite of everything they have done to bring down the country, things are improving. It could be more, but Republicans aren't gonna let that happen. They have become a kind of "internal economic al Qaeda". Well, we are on to them. It's only a war when we fight back. And Democrats are "fighting back".

 

[Rozman]

What a shock.....
What the hell...
As long as the Libs are happy and got Obama back in
that's what's important.