Hopes rise as jobless claims fall, trade gap eases

[Peacetrain]

This one link brought together a couple of good news items on the economy today.. Exports increasing is huge..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100909/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy

WASHINGTON – The number of people signing up for unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest level in two months, an encouraging sign that companies aren't resorting to deeper layoffs even as the economy has lost momentum.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new claims for unemployment aid plunged last week by a seasonally adjusted 27,000 to 451,000. Economists had predicted a much smaller decline of just 2,000.

In a second hopeful sign, the government said the trade deficit narrowed significantly in July as exports climbed to the highest level in nearly two years. The narrower gap reflected big gains in exports of U.S.-made airplanes and other manufactured goods. Imports declined.

[ClarkUSA]

1. Excellent news, considering census jobs and summer jobs are out of the picture. nt

[Peacetrain]

2. That is the thing that struck me this morning

Not only the census and summer jobs are not in the mix..but the holiday jobs are not in there either.. too early.. this is good.. coupled with our growth in exports.. Its a good thing

[ClarkUSA]

3. Yes, the trend line looks promising.

There's reason to hope that a couple more months of this kind of good news will help Democrats in November.

[Kdillard]

4. K and rec. Hopefully the good news will continue.

[FBaggins]

5. That improving trade gap should help revised GDP figures. n/t