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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Employers added 120,000 jobs, the nation’s official unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent and the percentage of working-age Americans with a job dropped to 64 percent during November, the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday.

The drop in the unemployment rate was a combination of some people getting jobs while other long-term unemployed people gave up looking and were no longer counted as unemployed.

The 120,000 jobs were the bare minimum needed to keep up with growth in the labor force because from 120,000 to 200,000 people enter the labor force for the first time in their lives each month. That number of jobs is not sufficient to begin putting a dent in the millions of jobs that were either lost or not created during the recession.

Still, the official 8.6 percent unemployment rate was a drop of 0.4 percentage points from the 9.0 percent unemployment in October, while the 64 percent labor force participation rate was a 0.2 percentage point drop from the 64.2 percent of working-age Americans who were employed in October.

Among various groups, the unemployment rate was:

• adult men 8.3 percent
• whites 7.6 percent
• adult women 7.8 percent
• teenagers 23.7 percent
• blacks 15.5 percent
• Hispanics 11.4 percent

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – First time claims for jobless benefits remained stubbornly above the key 400,000 mark during the week ending June 11. The tally was 414,000 initial claims, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Initial jobless claims have been stuck above 400,000 weekly since April.

Although that was down by 16,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 430,000, it is still too high to signal that a long-awaited jobs recovery is near.

Economists say that it takes the creation of around 200,000 jobs per month to provide jobs for people entering the work force for the first time.

To put that situation into perspective, the economy would need to create about 20 million jobs right now to provide jobs for those who lost their jobs since the recession began, along with the people who tried to enter the workforce during that time and could not find their first job. Analysts say that could take 10 to 15 years to accomplish.

The less volatile four-week moving average was unchanged from the previous week at 424,750 initial jobless claims.

In addition, the percentage of jobless Americans covered by the nation’s unemployment compensation insurance program was unchanged at 2.9 percent for the week ending June 4, the most recent week for which such data is available.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending June 4 were in:

• Wisconsin (+1,528)
• Tennessee (+1,055)
• Illinois (+755)
• New Mexico (+659) and
• Indiana (+539)

The number of people claiming benefits in all jobless programs for May 28, the latest week for which such data is available, was 7,401,228, which was down by 209,116 from the previous week.

During the week ending May 28, extended jobless benefits were available in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and West Virginia.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – New unemployment claims remain stubbornly high at 427,000 for the week ending June 4, which were 1,000 more than the previous week.

Economists generally agree that initial claims for unemployment compensation insurance must drop below the 400,000 mark weekly and stay there before there is a recovery in the jobs sector of the United State’s economy. But claims have been stuck above that mark for nine weeks now.

Although the nation officially came out of recession two years ago, so far the economic recovery has been limited to the financial services sector of the economy with the jobs and small business sectors still struggling.

The U.S. only created 54,000 jobs last month, which is well below the 200,000 jobs the economy needs to create monthly just for first time workers. In addition, competition for jobs is stiff. With only 3 million openings nationwide, there are at least 4.6 jobless Americans for every available job.

Moreover, the less volatile four-week moving average for first time jobless claims is still stuck above the 400,000 mark at 424,000, a small decrease of 2,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 426,750, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending May 21, the latest week for which such data is available, fell slightly to 7,601,344, down by 89,233 from the week before.

However, that does not necessarily mean those people found jobs. Jobless benefits limits can end before a person finds work. In addition, that is more likely to happen in the future as many states move to cut the number of weeks a jobless worker can collect unemployment compensation insurance payments.

 

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Fayette County had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state, at 7.6 percent.

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WASHINGTON – Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but initial claims are still running above levels normally associated with strong hiring trends. The Labor Department on Thursday said 409,000 people filed new applications for jobless benefits in the week ended May 14, down from an upwardly revised 438,000 in the prior week. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected claims to decline to a seasonally adjusted 424,000. The number of new requests for unemployment compensation has bounced around over the past few months, ranging from as low as 375,000 in mid-February to as high as 478,000 in late April. The volatility in new claims has made it harder for economists to figure out the direction of the U.S. labor market, though other data, such as the monthly employment report, have shown that businesses are hiring at the fastest pace in five years. Government officials said several one-time factors that often crop up in the spring, such as the Easter holiday and spring break for schools, have distorted the data. As a result, most economists have been expecting the runup in claims to subside. Still, new applications have topped the 400,000 mark for six straight weeks after falling to a three-year low three months ago.

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The Labor Department reported that applications in the U.S. for unemployment compensation fell by 44,000 to 434,000. Economists had expected applications to decline to a seasonally adjusted 428,000 from an upwardly revised 478,000 in the prior week.The four-week average of new claims rose by 4,500 to 436,750, which is the highest level since November.The number [...]

This article ( Labor Department Reported Jobless Claims Fell 44,000 to 434, ) was originally developed by and is property of American Banking News . Checkout American Banking News for up-to-date banking news and peer to peer lending news.

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