(March 20, 2008) – This week’s initial unemployment claims number is about as exciting as kissing your sister. (Well, maybe except for Angelina Jolie’s brother–those lips are huge!) Initial claims numbers bobbing around in this range tell us what we already know. The economy is in the hardly growing but not shrinking range it has been in for some time. It will take a jolt to move it out of the range–one way or the other.
The Department of Labor announced in their Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report that in the week ending March 15, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 378,000, an increase of 22,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 356,000. The 4-week moving average was 365,250, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 359,250.
JR
