How is the summer of recovery going? Well according to the latest numbers, no so good as first time claims for unemployment rose again last week and are now at the ominous 500,000 mark.
The Department of Labor reports:
In the week ending Aug. 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 500,000, an increase of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 488,000. The 4-week moving average was 482,500, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 474,500.
That is a lot of people for a “recovery”. It will be interesting to see how these numbers continue to trend for the next couple months up to Election Day. My prediction is they will continue to hover weekly from 425,000 to 525,000 which is well above the rate of just 150,000 to 200,000 needed to bring real unemployment rates down and get people who have given up looking for work back into the workforce.
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