New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, a government report showed on Thursday, but held below a key level associated with labor market recovery.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 26,000 to a seasonally adjusted 397,000, the Labor Department said, after falling to a 2-1/2 year low the prior week.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 378,000. The prior week’s figure was revised slightly up to 371,000 from the previously reported 368,000.
Today, there are 13.5 million unemployed Americans seeking work. That compares with 10.3 million in 1938 at the height of the Great Depression. Let’s see if the politicians can put a positive spin on that fact. (Data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Would be interesting to see how these figures break down as far as the age of the unemployed worker…also, people are living longer today than in 1938, which would swell the numbers. The government is not counting those who are still unemployed but have gone through their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. Once you’ve gone through the 99 weeks, you don’t exist, as far as the government is concerned. Also, recent college grads who are unemployed aren’t counted, either…they can’t collect unemployment.
@darius..what was the population in 1938 and what is the population now? Numbers don’t mean anything without context. Just because you use facts (and bravo for actually doing some research) doesn’t make your argument any better if you don’t have a contextual basis of what you are arguing.
BTW, we are about triple the population we were in 1938. A 3M difference is huge when you have a third of the population.