New jobless claims up, economic recovery in serious doubt -- or worse
By Frank Ahrens
Unemployment is in this country is going the wrong way.
On Thursday morning, the Labor Department said that new jobless claims filed last week unexpectedly rose by 12,000 to hit 500,000, the first time since November that the half-million mark has been reached. The four-week moving average of new unemployment claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, rose by 8,000 to 482,500. Forecasters expected last week's new jobless claims number to go down, not up.
President Obama used the bad jobs data to urge Congress to restart the stalled small business jobs bill that he said would help small businesses with tax cuts and expense write-offs, and would help small banks lend to small businesses.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-economy/2010/08/unemployment_is_in_this_countr.htmlYikes...