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Jobless Claims: 2012 Closes With a 10K Increase

Jan. 3, 2013 9:21am Becket Adams

Applications for jobless benefits increased by 10,000 for the week ending December 29, bringing the total to 372,000, up from last week’s revised figure of 362,000, the Labor Department announced on Thursday.

The four-week moving average, a “less volatile” figure, decreased by 250, bringing the total to 360,000, down from last week’s revised average of 359,750.

Unemployment offices in at least nine states were closed last week for the New Year’s holiday — so the department had to rely on estimates.

“The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ending December 22, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending December 22 was 3,245,000, an increase of 44,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,201,000,” the report reads.

“The 4-week moving average was 3,224,250, an increase of 6,500 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,217,750,” the report adds.

The states with the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending December 22 were Ohio (+8,795), Michigan (+6,641), Pennsylvania (+5,530), Kentucky (+4,745), and Massachusetts (+4,330).

Meanwhile, California (-11,789), West Virginia (-473), Florida (-450), Arizona (-192), and South Dakota (-186) posted the biggest decreases in initial claims.

“Weekly applications … have mostly fluctuated this year between 360,000 and 390,000. At the same time, employers have added an average of 151,000 jobs a month in the first 11 months of 2012,” the Associated Press reports.

“Unemployment remains high and companies are reluctant to ramp up hiring. The unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent in November from 7.9 percent in October mostly because many of the unemployed stopped looking for jobs. The government counts people as unemployed only if they are actively searching for work,” the report adds.

So what’s can we say about unemployment benefits in 2012?

It would seem initial claims can be summed for 2012 in one word, ‘average,’” writers at Zero Hedge not. “This last print of 2012 was almost perfectly at 2012′s average of 372, the biggest miss since the first week of November and the Sandy disturbance.”

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Comments (20)

stevetherealist
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:50am
even in the face of constant improvement dispite constant obstruction you guys remain bitter and negitive. Must be a miserable existence.

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- NigelTufnel
  Posted on January 3, 2013 at 12:34pm
  What exactly has been improving? GDP? Real income? Employment rate? 372,000 is a horrible number. 215,000 jobs created is terrible for December. Wait till the first social security checks go out and the elderly realize they are paying $50 to Obamacare. Guess what. They get to pay an additional $150 next January too. Now you have Immelt saying that 3% growth is just right. 12% would be bad! You can’t make this stuff up. You and your ilk have proclaimed to the world that conservatives do not matter anymore. Why are you here? No more straw-men to batter? Or are you finally coming to grips with the fact that taxing the rich isn’t gonna work if you don’t cut expenditures too? Nah. Better find something else to talk about. Say, Barbara Walters said that Chris Christie is too fat to serve. This clearly leaves Hillary out. Her health appears to be far worse. Obama’s still puffin a pack a day of Newports. Is he healthy enough to serve? Yes. What we need is more division and distraction. Maybe the poor won’t notice they are getting poorer.
  
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- doomytram
  Posted on January 3, 2013 at 1:04pm
  If your relying on the mis and disinformation from the ABC(CIA MSM) then of course things are getting better. It’s like if your household income was 80,000 per year, your credit card debt 280,000. You annual spending is 160,000 per year and you can’t go bankrupt or stop spending. The Orangutan’s in the District of Corruption tell you everything is fine. Sheila Jackson Lee, Clyburn, and Rangel are your accountants, and they are telling you that your finances are looking fine. Steve do you get your information from non Kool Aid related sources much? If your getting any of your positive news, on the economy, from these sources (All Newspapers, Fox ABC,CBS, NBC, ET, TMZ, MSNBC, CNN, et all) then your getting fed lies and misinformation. Remember, that the National Enquirer is more credible than NBC.
  
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- DontStopBelieving
  Posted on January 3, 2013 at 3:32pm
  Steve, on what planet is there “constant improvement”, please, enlighten us.
  
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doomytram
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 10:49am
Moving America Forward toward Communism since 2007

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ColoradoMaverick
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 10:38am
This is the “new normal” now. Endless high unemployment. People who can’t find work are stuck on extended unemployment benefits and welfare and after that is exhausted, they are forced to file for disability. Then depression and dispair set in and people begin to crack. They get a gun or whatever and go on a murder spree and then kill themselves.

Hope and Change Baby!!

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- Cavallo
  Posted on January 3, 2013 at 11:03am
  More common and likely is what has occurred in the UK. Multi-generational families passing on the benefit cycle from one generation to the next. Families and individuals who have never held a job and always been on the government assistance programs. Supplemental income sometimes gained from selling of contraband and being paid under the table.
  
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Timmy_NorthWest
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 10:24am
Barber, it is too funny. thank you for starting my day on a good foot. I want what he had for breakfast!

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Bobby D
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 10:02am
One more mile down the road to destruction, thanks to socialists in DC

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Timmy_NorthWest
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:47am
Dublin; happy to see you say “little ” Timmy. Would not want to be confused for him. LOL

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Timmy_NorthWest
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:45am
These guys have been playing with the”numbers” for a long time now. Really, would they tell us the truth? Imagine the POTUS coming out and saying the ecomy sucks and we are going down in a blaze of glory?

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- barber2
  Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:49am
  TIMMY: Read TIMEBOMB’s comments. He is channeling the inner Obama !
  
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Cavallo
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:43am
It’s only going to get worse. Its the only way the math works. In what realm or reason would the employment aspect improve in 2013? Is there some brand new tech that will create a massive bubble boom? Certainly they have insured that the government regulation will be increasing on business (see: Increased cost to do business, less money for new labor or expansion), they have promised and passed increased taxes on business (see: Increased cost to do business, less money for new labor or expansion). Maybe there is something I am missing. What economic principle is being used to promise economic recovery? New government outlays to failed business concepts?

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SamIamTwo
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:40am
Yeah, like COAL being 1.7% but when you get your annuity check you end up getting about 100 bucks less in 2013 due to the lowly weighted health care costs. Oil is the heaviest weighted and can be manipulated to keep inflation below what people actually need to get by. Soooo I doubt if these numbers are correct. Everyone who relies on bls.gov for their inflation indicies for various items/products (especially in negotiation of contracts) have always questioned bls.gov’s formulas.

And it does not matter who the president is…it is on remote control and the COLA formula does not mirror the public law for the COLA.

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dublinthewagons
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:35am
Quantitive easing 5 no problem for the big O & little Timmy

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ArmedAndReallyPissed
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:30am
You can fudge the numbers just so long. Wait till next month and the month after that and the month after that and………………………..

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woodyee
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:28am
What are the REAL unemployment figures?

How many folks are NOT working today as a result of actions taken by the seat-holder in the WH, acting on behalf of his handlers, that were working in 2008.

How many folks are on unemployment?
Food Stamps?
Welfare?
What percentage of those are of working age and NOT retired?

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- OurFoundingFather
  Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:39am
  Good points – we are living in a period where the media controls and manipulates this type of information to benefit their ‘visions’ – we need to continue and never stop asking these questions.
  
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- barber2
  Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:48am
  OUR: Agree. The droning of the Chicago radicals on America would never have been possible without the work of the Lefty media. The Media is now the fourth, and strongest, branch of our government. Am sure the Founders had no idea how the Tom Paine pamphlet business could escalate to this stage.
  
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barber2
Posted on January 3, 2013 at 9:24am
So, you are surprised ? Just what one would expect during Obama II . The Chicago radicals War on American Capitalism continues….Ayers must be most pleased…

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