Thursday, July 9, 2009

Unemployment numbers should worry the Obama Administration

I know I am harping on this, but the average American understand the number of FOLK NOT WORKING. They get that, they see that, they know that. So, as the numbers are still bad, the Obama Administration need to push that stimulus money out faster than expected. Now we have Joe Biden heading to Ohio talking stimulus money. Why? Because Obama's numbers have plummeted in that state. Again, we that follow politics understand it takes time, but I have written that the challenge for the Obama Administration will be convincing the public to have patience. Hard to do when you are on unemployment, don't have health care insurance, can barely pay bills with that unemployment check and jobs are scarce.

Lastly, it would also help not to have a Vice-President stating, "We misread the econonmy", which now gives the Republicans and others a talking point. A valid talking point at that. Which makes me believe that Timothy Geither, who I was highly questionable about because of his HEAVY TIES to the banking industry, it really not the man that should be at Treasury.

The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits last week fell to lowest level since early January, largely due to changes in the timing of auto industry layoffs.

Continuing claims, meanwhile, unexpectedly jumped to a record-high. While layoffs are slowing, unemployed workers are having a difficult time finding new jobs. The unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent last month and is expected to top 10 percent by the end of this year.

New claims for unemployment insurance plummeted by 52,000 to 565,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s significantly below analysts’ expectations of 605,000, according to Thomson Reuters. The last time new claims were below 600,000 was week of Jan. 24.

The drop resulted partly from technical factors, a department analyst said. Auto layoffs that normally take place in early July, as factories are retooled to build the next year’s models, occurred in the spring instead as General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC implemented sweeping restructuring plans.

The department’s seasonal adjustment process expected a large increase in claims from auto workers and other manufacturing workers, the analyst said. Since that didn’t occur, seasonally-adjusted claims fell.

The non-seasonally adjusted figure increased by about 17,000 to 577,506 initial claims.

Still, continuing claims jumped 159,000 to 6.88 million, the highest on records dating from 1967. Analysts had expected 6.71 million continuing claims. read more here.....

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