Last week’s figures from the department of labor indicate a slight increase
in jobless claims. Claims were up to 480,00 from last week’s 472,000.
Business Week suggested that the figure indicates companies lack confidence that the economic recovery can be sustained.
Since the unemployment figure is expected to remain at about
10% over the year, that will impact consumer buying as well as
organizational hiring. This will be a slooooowwww recovery.
As I have indicated previously, initial jobless claims may
be the best statistic on the recovery. Again, here’s Mark Zandi’s
interpretation of the statistics: Only
when claims head down to 400,000 will the economy be creating enough
jobs to maintain stable unemployment. Closer to 350,000 will lower the
unemployment rate and mean that the recovery is evolving into an
expansion. When we get to initial weekly unemployment claims of
300,000, boom times are back.
