For the very first time in weeks, the number of new jobless claims has sharply dropped. For the last year, employment in the U.S. has been awful. Nevertheless, the usual holiday employment increase and an additional bump from the United States census hiring people made things a little better. That is some good news on that front, though housing remains abysmal. The news is more a Pyrrhic victory than other things. Unemployment has held steadily since November of last year. As word of the mild respite broke, stock markets were given a slight boost.
Minor decrease with regard to new jobless cases
The Department of Labor got to release some happy news. There was a reduction in the number of brand new jobless claims this week. The number of jobless claims still sits, adjusted seasonally, at 473,000, but that number dropped by 31,000 over the last week. That’s encouraging, however the past four weeks average to 486,750. According to Forbes, that’s the highest since November 2009. That said, winter jobless claims have to be taken with a grain of salt, as holiday seasonal employment provides a slight spike for the busiest part of the retail year. There was also some temporary other employment. The Census was taken this year.
Jobless claims spur stock market increase
The new jobless claims report provided, as outlined by the Wall Street Journal, just a little rise to stock markets. The largest increase was .3 percent for Standard and Poor’s, a barely mentionable gain. The Dow went up an unbelievable .1 percent, and Nasdaq shot up .2 percent. However, the big news is less the fall in unemployment cases, however the activity concerning 3Par and Dell, as Dell has acquired the data storage company. A bidding war between Dell and Hewlett-Packard for 3 Par has been the huge story on Wall Street over the last week, after last week’s rampant coverage of Potash Corp.
To claim the development modest could be an understatement
This was not a radical decrease in unemployment. There are few indicators it is decreasing by much. Fewer employers are at the moment hiring. The real estate market has been nothing short of dismal, and it is estimated that 10 percent of all homeowners are at risk of foreclosure.
Additional reading
Forbes
forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/08/26/real-estate-industrials-us-economy_7879865.html
Wall Street Journal
online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100826-709681.html
