The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose to 445,000 from an upwardly revised reading of 410,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. It was the biggest one-week jump in about six months, confounding analyst forecasts for a small drop to 405,000.
A Labor Department official noted the rebound occurred following the holidays, which may have hindered reporting of new claims and created a backlog.
Continuing claims retreated sharply to 3.88 million from 4.13 million, a potentially encouraging sign. However, the total number of Americans on benefit rolls, including extended benefits under emergency government programs, jumped to 9.19 million from 8.77 million.
Not good news heading into 2011, especially that last number. Still a long way to go.
Structural unemployment is going to be with us for a long time. We basically have three mega-trends. We have technological advances. We have globalization. And we have temporary jobs becoming a permanent part of this economy. And no matter how much money the Fed puts in the system in the form of quantitative easing.it's not gonna change the job picture materially.
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