seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims last week at 320,000

December 1, 2005 UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Nov. 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 320,000, a decrease of 17,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 337,000. The 4-week moving average was 322,500, a decrease of 1,250 from the previous week's revised average of 323,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.2 percent for the week ending Nov. 19, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.2 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Nov. 19 was 2,767,000, a decrease of 24,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,791,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,778,250, a decrease of 7,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,785,250.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 289,629 in the week ending Nov. 26, a decrease of 78,976 from the previous week. There were 320,690 initial claims in the comparable week in 2004.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8 percent during the week ending Nov. 19, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,324,262, a decrease of 235,164 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 1.8 percent and the volume was 2,331,862.


Extended benefits were available in Louisiana during the week ending Nov. 12.

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/current.htm

the economy is improving, but not by a lot.

a small fudging of the unemployment numbers, following by a little padding of the GDP numbers.

this number are just the sum of all the states NEW during the prior week applications for unemployment benefits.

The more expansive unemployment rate is U-6 and it is at 8.7%. Of those folks only about 25% get aid from the government via unemployment checks - so aid checks go to about 2% of the work force each month. The unemployment rate U-3 does not include some of the not working but looking for work that are included in U-6, but U-3 is the on reported in the media and is at 5% now.

considering this country needs ~150,000 jobs just to keep up with population growth. This in the face of a Microsoft announcment to invest $1 Billion+ in India. The people of this country are being sold out by our own corporations (the flu vaccine being outsourced to England). There are allegations that Halliburton does business with Iran, and the blood money: the war profiteering in Iraq. In the mean time, we have to take two or more low-paying McJobs to make ends meet.

You're seeing another attempt in dumbing down of America in the area of the sciences and the introduction (or march) of the "Flat-Earthers" in the classrooms (Intelligent Design Movement).

They do away with tracking the statistics that matter, such as the number of people who have given up on looking for work (I'm one and I know at least 3 other professionals in the same boat). Then fudge-factor the rest with "adjustments." Does anybody believe these numbers anymore? If you do, I have a very nice bridge for sale.

The numbers and the markets are cooked no doubt.

This "heavenly way," the Rev. Sun Myung Moon explained, demands a 51-mile underwater highway spanning Alaska and Russia. Sitting in the front row: Neil Bush, the brother of the president of the United States.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the South Korean giant of the religious right who owns the Washington Times, is on a 100-city speaking tour to promote his $200 billion "Peace King Tunnel" dream. As he describes it, the tunnel would be both a monument to his magnificence, and a totem to his prophecy of a unified Planet Earth. In this vision, the United Nations would be reinvented as an instrument of God's plan, and democracy and sexual freedom would crumble in the face of this faith-based glory.

The name Peace King Tunnel would allude to the title of authority to which Moon, 86, lays claim, and to which U.S. congressmen paid respect on Capitol Hill in last year's controversial "Crown of Peace" coronation ritual.
http://alternet.org/story/29054/