New jobless claims unexpectedly rise by 24,000
New weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rose by 24,000 to 484,000 last week, the government said this morning, increasing worries that high unemployment will stick around for a long time.
Forecasters had expected the new jobless claims number to come in at 430,000.
The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility in the number, rose by 7,500 last week to 457,750.
Continuing claims rose from 4.57 million to 4.64 million.
Economists suggest the spike in claims could be related to the Easter holiday. Each week, it seems, there's some sort of anomaly that affects the new jobless claims -- the big February snows, the March snapback from the big February snows, the Easter holiday -- so it's hard to get a good handle on the real jobless picture in the U.S.
The official U.S. unemployment rate is 9.7 percent, which was unchanged from February to March. This time last year, the economy was shedding 600,000 jobs per week. On the other hand, in order for job growth to begin, the weekly new jobless claims number to get down to the low 400,000s and stay there.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/economy-watch/2010/04/new_jobless_claims_unexpectedl_3.html?hpid=topnews
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