Thursday, August 12, 2010

Rising jobless claims underscores slowing recovery

A 2,000 increase in weekly initial jobless claims to 484,000 puts claims at just 6,000 below peak level reached early in the year.

The worrisome level reflects the uncertainty many businesses are dealing with and also shows why the Fed decided to slowly begin to buy longer-term U.S. Treasuries at yesterday’s meeting (see Fed adjusts course, lowers outlook on economy).

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Until demand in the economy picks up and businesses start experiencing rising orders/sales, weekly claims are likely to remain at elevated levels.

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