Jobless claims are at an all time high. Nevertheless, the number of new jobless claims got a small reprieve just lately. The last six months are somewhat dismal for employment, though temporary boosts were provided by seasonal employment around the holidays and also the United States census. Good news is better than bad news. Housing, the other area that is bad off, is nevertheless within the basement. The news is more a Pyrrhic victory than anything else. Unemployment has held steadily since November of last year. The news got stock markets to climb ever so slightly.
Brand new claims decrease a bit
The Department of Labor got to release some happy news. There was a reduction within the amount of brand new jobless cases this week. Seasonally adjusted, there were 473,000 unemployed cases. However, that number is down by 31,000 over the last week. That’s encouraging, but the past four weeks average to 486,750. According to Forbes, that’s the highest since November 2009. That said, winter jobless claims have to be taken with a grain of salt, as holiday seasonal employment provides a slight spike for the busiest part of the retail year. There was also some temporary other employment. The Census was taken this year.
Report regarding less unemployed cases gives small raise to stock market
As outlined by the Wall Street Journal, the news did some urgent good. It gave stock exchanges a very modest increase. The largest increase was .3 percent for Standard and Poor’s, a barely mentionable gain. The Nasdaq climbed only .2 percent, and the Dow Jones managed a paltry .1 percent gain. However, the big news is less the fall in unemployment cases, however the activity concerning 3Par and Dell, as Dell has acquired the data storage business. There’s a large bidding war going on, and it is even bigger news than the Potash saga. Hewlett Packard and Dell are fighting it out for 3Par, and it is causing a huge firestorm of coverage.
The advance is actually minor
This is not really an indicator of much in the way of unemployment radically decreasing. There aren’t that many employers hiring. Real estate shows few signs of life, and it is believed that up to 10 percent of all homeowners may have foreclosure as a significant possibility in their future.
Further reading
Forbes
forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/08/26/real-estate-industrials-us-economy_7879865.html
Wall Street Journal
online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100826-709681.html
