Jobless Claims, China Steals Jobs, Boeing Layoffs

Which One of These Things Doesn't Look Like the Others?

Remember that old Electric Company or Sesame Street skit referenced in the title here? Boeing's layoffs don't look like the others, for now, while jobless claims still above 400K have a lot to do with all the work American companies have shifted abroad and the unfair trade play of China generally, stealing our jobs. This article just brushes on it, but please use the opportunity to vent via the "Discuss" tab below nonetheless.

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Jobless Claims, China Steals Jobs, Boeing Layoffs

Weekly Initial Jobless Claims were reported today for the period ending January 15. We've been tracking the holiday sponsored miscue that had jobless claims dip below 400K, before suffering a sort of pent-up demand spike last week. That prior period claims count was revised today, to a still troubling 441K, from the initially reported 445K. This latest weeks' data perhaps offered a normalization of the flow of newly jobless, and may be our first indicator since mid-December of the real weekly jobless rate.

Claims ran at 404K, just above that important psychological threshold, which we have posited has been a catalyst for the fall market burst, in addition to the GOP Congressional push. The four-week moving average of jobless claims slipped by 4,000 this week, to 411,750, and represents a more accurate barometer of the state of labor. It has been slowly trending toward the ordinary though magic mark, which will then be replaced by 300K (matters more).

The advanced seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate held unexpectedly at 3.1% in the January 8 period. The Greek was looking for this figure to revive post the holiday effect, after dropping by two-tenths in the holiday week. It's a suspect reading in my view, and may dip next week. It is impacted by folks dropping out of the labor force and the unemployment pool, some of which we believe occurred on despair through the holidays, but also by people getting jobs.

Sifting through corporate news isn't offering signs of a new tide today though. Boeing (NYSE: BA) announced it would let 1,100 people go from its C-17 operations, some 24% of the product workforce, including folks in Long Beach, California; St. Louis, Missouri; Mesa, Arizona; and Macon, Georgia. Domestic orders, a.k.a. from the Defense Department, are on the decline, given government capital constraints. However, Boeing sees burgeoning international demand and wants to simply slow production while it continues to capture that increasing business channel.

The question to answer moving forward is whether corporations are going to find earnings growth from revenue gains or whether they'll be cutting more costs, which could include further layoffs. Many signs point to that happening still in the state and municipal arena, especially within hot spot regions of the country, like Illinois, California and others including New York.

One question Americans should be asking their Congressmen today, ahead of their interrogation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, should be, are American workers benefiting from the growth of companies like Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL)? And don't forget to ask them what we can do to create American manufacturing jobs in the alternative energy space, something that is not likely to happen at the status quo. They'll all be made in China, unless the Chinese play fair on the yuan and stop stealing our jobs.

FYI:

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Jan. 1 were in Alaska (7.2 percent), Puerto Rico (6.1), Idaho (5.6), Oregon (5.6), Wisconsin (5.6), Pennsylvania (5.4), Montana (5.1), Connecticut (5.0), Rhode Island (4.9), Illinois (4.7), and New Jersey (4.7).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 8 were in New York (+24,363), California (+17,536), North Carolina (+16,873), Texas (+13,828), and Illinois (+11,211), while the largest decreases were in Oregon (-9,579), Iowa (-3,122), Michigan (-3,101), Wisconsin (-2,029), and Kentucky (-1,006).



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