U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Match Highest Since ’82

Bloomberg

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Americans filing first- time claims for unemployment benefits matched the highest level in 26 years as firings forced more workers to seek government assistance in a deepening recession.

Initial jobless claims increased by 62,000 to 589,000, more than forecast, in the week ended Jan. 17, from a revised 527,000 the prior week, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington.
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Initial claims were estimated to rise to 543,000 from 524,000 initially reported for the prior week, according to the median projection of 40 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 450,000 to 594,000.

Last week’s tally was the same as the total in the week of Dec. 20, which was the highest level since November 1982.

The four-week moving average of initial claims, a less volatile measure, held at 519,250.

The number of people on benefit rolls increased to 4.607 million in the week ended Jan. 10, from 4.510 million the prior week. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the jobless rate, held at 3.4 percent. These data are reported with a one-week lag.

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Forty-four states and territories reported an increase in new claims for the week ended Jan. 10, while nine reported a decrease.

Initial jobless claims reflect weekly firings and tend to rise as job growth -- measured by the monthly non-farm payrolls report -- slows.

Economists predict the job-shedding extended into this year. The payrolls report showed a 12th consecutive monthly drop December, bringing total job losses in 2008 to 2.6 million, more than in any year since 1945. The unemployment rate climbed to 7.2 percent, the highest level in almost 16 years.

If you are still working, I hope you have enough sense to save some money for when your job is on the chopping block!

I was doing some math and there are 3mil homeless people. I thought had we not chose bailout this would have added the 5mil apprx. rich and the worker counterpart at 4mil. It's interesting to see that 7.2% reflects a 10mil figure. Maybe bail out is not attacking the part we want to fix?

and that is the "seasonally adjusted" numbers!

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 768,858 in the week ending Jan. 17

and

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 2,605 in the week ending Jan. 10, an increase of 1,171 from the prior week. There were 2,316 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 773 from the preceding week.

There were 21,070 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Jan. 3, an increase of 1,378 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 26,958, an increase of 1,068 from the prior week.
Source

I also notice that if you added up the drops down on w st. they probably add up to the 500 points that brought this all on. People our losing jobs and there ain't any let up. Something is wrong I feel war and depression coming on. We've been robbed deeply money has gone to pay off the private sector "Bush people". This ain't good. They did what i thought they should which was sell off stock but i don't know who that benefits.