The U.S. Department of Labor released a report stating average jobless claims has dropped but not all areas are seeing improvements. California (+3,715), Ohio (+1,270), Texas (+1,151), Pennsylvania (+999) have all seen increases in jobless claims.
Some news sites are spinning this news in very awkward ways: “Employers fired the fewest workers last week since before the recession began almost six years ago, raising expectations that bigger job gains will soon give U.S. consumers the ability to boost spending. ”
Oh – great – fewer people were fired. Let’s celebrate.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. USA Today puts it in better perspective: “Employers have added an average of 192,000 jobs a month this year. The unemployment rate has declined to 7.4%, a 4½ year low. That’s still well above the 5% to 6% range associated with a normal economy.”
More important, the type of jobs added are not replacement jobs for those lost over the past few years.