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Weekly Unemployment Aid Applications Plunge

Feb. 28, 2013 8:36am Becket Adams

Well of course it’s that time again. It’s time for your unemployment aid update.

Applications for jobless benefits fell by 22,000 for the week ending February 23, bringing the total to 344,000, down from last week’s revised figure of 366,000, the Labor Department announced on Thursday.

The four-week moving average, a “less volatile” figure, fell by 6,750, bringing the total to 355,000, down from last week’s revised average of 361,750.

“The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.4 percent for the week ending February 16, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s revised rate,” the report reads.

“The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending February 16 was 3,074,000, a decrease of 91,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,165,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,155,000, a decrease of 35,500 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,190,500,” the report adds.

The states with the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending February 16 were California (+26,683), Connecticut (+1,747), Massachusetts (+883), and New Mexico (+5).

Meanwhile, Illinois (-3,285), Kansas (-3,114), Pennsylvania (-2,865), Florida (-2,442), and Ohio (-2,265) posted the biggest decreases in initial claims.

“Initial claims continue to print in a narrow range with the downward trend of 2010 and 2011 having stalled,” Zero Hedge notes:

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Front page photo courtesy Getty Images.

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Comments (15)

ValenS
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 1:57am
How can a country continue with 26.6% unemployment, as in SPAIN. And that is just the recognized unemployed. Surely, this is the end of the economic systems based on government printing and borrowing, and economic policies that destroyed the manufacturing sector, such as high taxation, over-regulation, and the over payment to public sector pensions.
Valen from http://britainloans.co.uk/ website.

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huey6367
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 9:29am
The way they calculate the unemployment rate (U3), eventually there will be a 0% unemployment rate.

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NigelTufnel
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 9:06am
Even the Keynesian model calls for a handing off of the baton from government spending to the private sector. I’d say that is what we have going on here albeit too slow for my blood. All Obama is doing is demonizing anyone he can while it’s happening. However the left is receiving their holy grail. Giant slashes in defense spending, govenrment run health care, an exponentially expanding lower class through immigration and social welfare, and yet the nation is not growing in wealth. Why is that?

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- randy1bella2
  Posted on February 28, 2013 at 1:34pm
  The baton is being handed off but to the head of private business.
  
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SpankDaMonkey
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 9:01am
.
They have No Clue what the number is…..

But it needs to climb a few points cause we need to fire those who count the unemployed…..

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love the kids
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 8:58am
Great, it looks like the Govt. cuts, (sequestration), is already working and boosting the job market like the Republicans said it would.

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- NigelTufnel
  Posted on February 28, 2013 at 9:31am
  That’s right. Capitalism and the free markets are tough to defeat. The questions remain though as to how much damage has all this central planning done? If Obama is a Keynesian then he should be all about this movement towards private sector spending and investment yet he stumps for more govenrment spending everyday. He never did get his 450 billion for his infrastructure bank. Richard Cordray is running an empty department right now. You can rank on the republican house all you want but you have to wonder what the spending levels and taxes would look like had we not elected them in 2010. All we are doing now is trying to reduce future spending “rate increases”. The market seems to like it and so does the private sector. The goal here is to reduce spending increases over the next 10 years so a 2.2% quarterly gdp growth will actually matter. With all of the lefts regulations we have to accept the fact the 3% gdp is top notch. We can forget about the 9% numbers pulled off by Reagan. Let the sequester happen. The most hilarious part about this whole thing is that the Obama camp will actually have to perform the boring and mundane tasks of governing. You know….prioritizing and making out budgets. It’s funny to watch them struggle with it.
  
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mewnani
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 8:55am
Wow, just look at that recovery guys! Never mind all the unemployed people and inflation and Obummercare and all that rightist dogma, everyone knows everything’s all hunky-dory, nothing to see here….

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hauschild
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 8:53am
Plunge? That’s really the word of choice for a fudged 22k drop in jobless claims in a country of over 300 million people???

I wonder how many idiots out there belief this crap?!?!

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- JonSigMan
  Posted on February 28, 2013 at 9:12am
  Far too many, far too many….
  
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Southernsoul
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 8:44am
Plummet? Out of an expected 360,000 we got 344,00. That’s less than 1% difference. Besides, these numbers are the U3 numbers and virtually meaningless. Why do they never use U6 numbers, or even simply show the adjusted numbers, that usually go from from the original?

Like everything else from this administration, this is just more blowing smoke.

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biohazard23
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 8:40am
So the REAL number is….? And how many people have just given up looking for work?

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- starman70
  Posted on February 28, 2013 at 8:46am
  And just how many are being hired “Part time” to fill in where companies have cut back workers hours to just 29 per week in order to avoid the penalties of Obamacare?
  
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- CatB
  Posted on February 28, 2013 at 8:52am
  How many have gone to “disabled” under this regime? Millions!
  
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- Outlaw_Josey_Wales
  Posted on February 28, 2013 at 8:55am
  The real number is ‘labor force participation rate’ which is at a 30 year low.
  
  Chart of ‘labor force participation rate’
  http://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate
  
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