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Unemployment Aid Apps Increase For First Time In A While

Mar. 21, 2013 8:44am Becket Adams

Let’s strap in and get ready: It’s time for our weekly unemployment applications aid report.

Applications for jobless benefits rose by 2,000 for the week ending March 16, bringing the total to 336,000, up from last week’s revised figure of 334,000, the Labor Department announced on Thursday.

It’s the first increase in roughly four weeks.

However, the four-week moving average, a “less volatile” figure, fell by 7,500, bringing the total to 339,750, down from last week’s revised average of 347,250.

“The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.4 percent for the week ending March 9, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate,” the report reads.

“The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 9 was 3,053,000, an increase of 5,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,048,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,076,250, a decrease of 28,000 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,104,250,” it adds.

Continuing claims also increased, up from 3,048K to 3,053K, beating expectations of a print of 3,050K.

The states with the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 9 were Georgia (+1,678), Florida (+802), Pennsylvania (+801), Ohio (+741), and Texas (+640).

Meanwhile, New York (-7,248), California (-6,189), Illinois (-1,172), Kansas (-1,098), and Alabama (-1,083) posted the biggest decreases in initial claims.

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Comments (27)

Bikkiboo
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 8:37pm
These figures are misleading and can be manipulated. I would like to find the figures for actual full time employment over the last decade. That’s the number that would help. Many people are still working, but they have lost hours because of Obamacare requirements, so they’re now part timers. (this happened in 2 restaurants I frequent). So, they’re working and not claiming unemployment, but they don’t have the jobs they had before, so they’re affected by Obama’s policies. These things don’t get reported in the figures, but they certainly affect the economy.

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SysAdminPgh
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 4:22pm
Roughly 350,000 people filed for unemployment for the FIRST time…. Boy ISN’T that something to be proud of!!!! But how about answering the question on – How many American businesses have left the US in the last four years? We pulled our plants out of the US and every month more and more Americans are arriving.

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Listen_then_think
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:42am
Unfortunately the real numbers are much higher for unemployment. Just like the gas prices went down just before elections and now have jumped back up to previous levels. It is manipulated by the gov not supply and demand. The left liberal media will be the first to get burned. When you play ball for satan, you will get burned.

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- kenboo1
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:58am
  It seems we can never get the right figures… It seems our government is out of touch… go to http://www.repeal17.net to read about how disconnected the Senate is from the electorate… then donate…
  
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pjury
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:39am
Although I’m a firm believer that there are lies, damned lies, and statistics, I would suggest that you take a look at the Orlando Bisegna Index which measures the intensity of the economic crisis in the G20 countries and other Euro countries. The index, which seems to be the only index of its kind, uses 206 different indicators to arrive at a monthly index for a total of 25 countries. The US is currently the 11th most crisis-hit country in the index.

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LEFT_NY_4_GOOD
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:36am
If you prefer the truth on unemployment and jobs reports, I suggest you read columns about this charade by John Crudell, NY Post columnist. Been reading his column for past 4 years and the man hits it on the head every time. He voted for Obama, the first time only.
Everyone makes mistakes, it take an honest man to admit it when he is wrong

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LEFT_NY_4_GOOD
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:31am
@RNM
Are you serious. In my 50+ yrs I have never notices so many shuttered business locations.
The home foreclosure rate is through the roof, wait til it hits the commercial market.
When I purchased my first home 30 years ago the interest rate was around 15%, today it hovers around 2% and resales are lackluster at best.
If you believe any of the jobs/unemployment data that comes out weekly, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I will give you at 0% interest, you just need to pay cash. Meet me at the local 7-11 8pm tonight, small unmarked bills only. I give you the Easter Bunny discount of $500000.00

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- RNM
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:53am
  Yep, I’m completely serious. Shuttered businesses have occurred where I live as well, however many new small businesses have un-shuttered the same buildings. Again, we COULD BE growing at a faster rate if government would get out of the way, but the doomsaying is way overdone IMO. Corporate profits are at an all-time high… if the economy sucks so badly, how can the corporate world still pull that off? It can’t all be due to layoffs. I’ll agree we have a long way to go, but I refuse to spit distorted rhetoric because I don’t like the policies of the current POTUS.
  
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- RaydocX
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 11:56am
  @RNM, i have to agree with @Left_NY here…
  we have far more closed businesses than one usually sees, and while there have been a few new start ups, they do not out pace the closures and are not enough to make the closed shops seem ‘average’.
  
  the corporations and stocks are doing well simply because our Fed continues to print money at an astounding rate, devaluing every dollar, so that just to maintain the value of their companies, the dollar value of each stock is going up.
  
  when the Fed stops, if not before, it will all come crashing down.
  
  and that has ZERO to do with the national debt and the money being lost paying that ever increasing interest load.
  
  Contrary to what your legislators in Washington DC think, they cannot forever operate the government with accounting tricks… there comes a day of reckoning, and it’s looking like it won’t be our kids that have the chickens come aroosting, but you and i… then again, considering how much it’s been exacerbated in the last 8 years, that’s where it’s deserved.
  
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- RNM
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 12:42pm
  @RAYDOCX… not so, just because Beck and other talking heads say so. I’d suggest you read an article by an economist that doesn’t ignore stats because he doesn’t agree with Obama, fiscal policy, monetary policy etc. He addresses the Fed reversing course here:
  
  http://www.ftportfolios.com/blogs/EconBlog/2013/3/4/rising-interest-rates-wont-cause-fiscal-armageddon
  
  Brian has been pretty spot on since the crisis began in ’08… i.e., we experienced a financial panic not a standard recession or depression cycle. His contention in the beginning was that the accounting rule known as “mark-to-market” was the main culprit in the precipitous crash we experienced. That rule causes banks to have to mark assets down all at once to what the market dictates the value is… not allowing them to spread losses out over time. Last time this accounting rule was in place?… the Great Depression. Banks failed then due to this accounting rule, just as they did in recent years. It was nixed in 1938, and we all know what happened from there… it was reintroduced in 2006, and we all know what happened shortly after. Proof in the pudding is the turnaround that occurred when mark-to-market was again nixed in March of ’09… coincidentally exactly the moment the precipitous stock market and job losses eased and eventually ended. The Fed’s efforts recently are rather unneccessary and should be reversed… but they will not likely cause this crash everyone anticipates.
  
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LEFT_NY_4_GOOD
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:21am
The jobs numbers are as honest as my Vegas Bookie. The unemployment rate is over-under-estimated to quote GWB.
Next time you watch a sporting event on TV, notice all the empty seats. Not just the cheap seats.

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hauschild
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:01am
I love how people “cling” onto a fabricated report like the weekly jobless claims filings.

If a guy doesn’t stand for anything, he’ll fall for everything.

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Sargeking
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 9:54am
For one, I’d like to see the economic numbers on the leisure industry. Where are the theme parks, air travel, cruise ships, motels and restaurants in over-all sales? I can spot a spin faster than a cat on a finch. AAA (American Automobile Association) broadcast their holiday numbers that vehicle travel increased through the holiday season. Their abject spin was that more people were driving LESS that 50 miles than ever before, hence the travel numbers were up. Really? What about the prior trips when most travelers drove from 300 to 600 hundred miles per vacation. I live out in the country. Just driving to and from the super market for me is just over 48 mile trip. Since the Obama Economy took full swing in 2008, I haven’t taken any major road trips. My point is that not only are things bad they are getting worse exponentially each passing day. Thank you Libs. We owe it all to you! By the way, thanks also for the rising price of middle grade gasoline. Good job, Obamamites!

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Cavallo
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 9:37am
The easiest and most successful fix to the economy is to offer more freedom. Free men in honest exchange with each other is the greatest economic wealth creator in the history of mankind. Government meddling creates extra poverty, sloth, graff, waste, and slavery. The Government is never in favor of freedom, which is what the bill of rights was supposed to mitigate. Too bad they don’t mean anything anymore.

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- progressiveslayer
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 9:56am
  You are correct sir and well said,the government screws up everything it sticks it’s nose into and for the last century it’s been sticking it’s nose into too many places. The war on poverty has created more poverty and you know what they say,the road to hell is paved with good intentions and this regime has been doing an awful lot of paving. The government is destroying the private sector through draconian regulations and confiscatory taxation and if we don’t reverse course ASAP we’re going down the tubes into a depression. It’s probably too late already though with the amount of crushing debt we have.
  
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- HappyCowboysWife
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 1:10pm
  The knowledge that we ARE losing our FREEDOM(s) is such a scary thing to me! I voted the right way…it didn’t do us any good! What can we do? Who is going to stop the madness and how?
  
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Sargeking
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 9:36am
This morning on FOX they are spinning the job numbers the opposite direction and advising that we are in a Recovery, albeit a slow one. PSSST! There is no “Recovery”! It’s a myth. Thank you BLAZE for the REAL news!

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Outlaw_Josey_Wales
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 9:18am
The most important economic data will come out on March 29th, personal income. In January, personal income had the largest drop in 20 years, about $42 billion a month, $505 billion annualized, equal to about 3% of GDP.

70% of the U.S. economy is consumer spending, if they have less money to spend, the economy will tank.

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- tightline
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 9:24am
  well put outlaw, i for one see a drop and as they say, i now spend less. i cant wait to see the numbers come end of month.
  
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progressiveslayer
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 9:04am
Ole Nancy P says high unemployment is good for new Amerika! You stupid bastards in Commiefornia keep inflicting her and others of her ilk on us and you’ll have so much unemployment it’ll make your empty heads swim.

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FlagWavingPatriot
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 9:03am
Who writes these headlines?

Call me, Glenn. I could help fix The Blaze.

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Gonzo
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 8:57am
It’s the damned sequester! :-)

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 9:27am
  GONZO, That is what I was thinking as I opened the story. If 0bama doesn’t say it himself, then Harry Reid will. That gutless dunce blaming the deaths of the seven Marines on the sequester is just more political tap dancing. For a mortar round to cook off prematurely was most likely a faulty round, or fuse.
  
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NoMoMrNiceGuy
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 8:53am
Useless Number – Real unemployment calculated by 1994 Labor Bureau numbers is 23% – We are so screwed already – Hang on kids it is going to get bumpy

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- Outlaw_Josey_Wales
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 9:47am
  Since January 2009, the number of jobs in America increased by 1.2 million. Baby boomer are retiring at a rate of 7500 per day. There is an average of 10,663 eighteen years olds entering the workforce each day. 65,200 jobs are need each month just to keep up with population growth.
  
  Since January 2009, about 4.8 million new jobs were needed just to keep up with population growth to keep the unemployment rate the same.
  
  I did some calulations on the unemployment numbers, the U3 is between 9-11%, U6 is between 16-19%.
  
  Report this comment
- RNM
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:07am
  23%! BS! I’m not a fan of Obama’s political persuasion, however I’m extremely weary of the numbers we pull out of our arses to try to paint things worse than they really are based solely on the reason we don’t like who sits in the Oval Office.
  
  I’ll repost something I posted hear yesterday on another economic story:
  “…job cuts and layoffs are expected to continue throughout the year…”
  Yet, no matter how much I may dislike the Obama administration’s policies, I know better than to simply close my eyes, plug my ears and constantly talk down the U.S. economy. Unlike The Blaze, I refuse to ignore that, IN SPITE OF Obama et al in DC, the private sector has posted a net gain of jobs every month since mid-2010. Is it stellar growth? No… and that’s partly because policies are holding a solid recovery back… but it certainly is not the free-falling, complete and utter collapse that Beck has been incessantly “predicting” for 5 years now. And don’t even bring up the number of people “not in the labor force” (NLF), because that statistic is usually “at a record high.” In recent years, it hit a new record in 2000 when the official unemployment rate was 4%, and hit another record in 2007 when the official unemployment rate was 4.5%. You know, it is entirely possible that the drop in the labor force participation is simply consistent with an aging population. Things are not perfect, but please… let’s stop playing the game of politics and downplaying
  
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- Outlaw_Josey_Wales
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:36am
  I made a error
  94,890 new jobs are needed each month just to keep up with population growth, not 65,200.
  
  Sorry about that, I looked at the wrong number in my notes.
  
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