Legal Commentary

Recovery 2011? Jobless Claims Jump To 410K

By Big Tent Democrat

After last week's drop to 383k new unemployment claims, everyone was declaring the beginning of the end of the jobs crisis. As I noted in this post, this repeats the experience of last year, when everyone was ready to declare the beginiing of the end of the jobs crisis. And like the last time, the calls were delusional. Aggregate demand remains extremely weak. Unless and until aggregate demand shows consistent growth, the jobs crisis will continue. Today's weekly jobless claims report supports this view:

More people applied for unemployment benefits last week, one week after claims had fallen to the lowest level in nearly three years. The Labor Department says 410,000 people sought unemployment assistance last week, a jump of 25,000 from the previous week. The rise was much larger than economists had expected.

It's not Recovery 2011, it is the continuation of our Lost Decade. And our leaders do not seem to care, as Austerity 2011 goes into full swing.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 17, 2011 (boomark / email).