Jobless Jive at the Cost of a Sound Bite

I get a little peeved sometimes when I hear a financial journalist twist data for the sake of a sound bite. It’s like this morning when a reporter said jobless claims had improved, implying the economy was simply lovely. I would be fairly certain viewers and listeners could discern reality if not for the Dow’s drive higher, up 0.8% or so today. My perusal through the Labor Department Report seems to support the reporter’s case, however accidentally she may have gotten there. So who’s to say if the latest jobless data offered good or bad news? I suspect 61K Americans have that answer.

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Jobless Jive at the Cost of a Sound Bite

Yeah Weekly Jobless Claims improved in the latest reported period ended July 2, but the 14,000 benefits filer decrease only took the weekly claims tally down to 418K. That’s right around the area it’s been meandering about for what seems like an eternity now. I mean that was clearly evident in the four-week moving average, which only improved by 3,000 to 424,750. This is not enthusing news, not in the least.

The insured unemployment rate dropped a tenth of a point in the period ending June 25, to 2.9%. It certainly was good news to see that insured unemployment improved by 43K in that same period, but 3.7 million people are still receiving unemployment insurance checks. If we count all Americans receiving some sort of government aid, including those receiving unemployment insurance through the extension program, well then 7,459,561 million suffering Americans come into the spotlight. Hey though, that’s 61K less than the previous week.

Come to think of it, the drift of this figure lower has been a juicy economic positive over the past few months, which I suppose is only so tasty for an economist’s palette. But I wonder how many of the people falling off this list are simply falling off the radar. And what if this latest pressure about the budget deficit leads Congress to cut off extensions; what if the policing of these benefits has already tightened, leaving Americans high and dry without a job and without any income as well? It would seem that this is possible at the ground level. If this not so savory theory is cooked into the numbers, then the divergence between the unemployed and underemployed should be exaggerated Friday when the Labor Department publishes its latest data.

One thing is certain, extended benefits are still being paid out at least in these states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and West Virginia (during the week ending June 18).

So whether this report is a good one or not is probably not for us to say. Neither can that aforementioned reporter know for sure. Only those 61K Americans no longer receiving checks can tell us what’s going on and exactly how things are. Are you working or are you panicking? Please tell us.

With this data, I always like to provide you with the latest information from the individual states:

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending June 18 were in Puerto Rico (4.7), Alaska (4.2), Pennsylvania (4.0), Oregon (3.9), California (3.7), Nevada (3.6), Arizona (3.4), Connecticut (3.4), Illinois (3.4), and New Jersey (3.4).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending June 25 were in New Jersey (+6,827), California (+5,375), Massachusetts (+3,816), New York (+2,591), and Connecticut (+2,097) while the largest decreases were in Pennsylvania (-4,974), Puerto Rico (-1,332), North Carolina (-1,316), Georgia (-975) and the Virgin Islands (-927).



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Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. This article and website in no way offers or represents financial or investment advice. Information is provided for entertainment purposes only.