Unemployement claims and Google Trends. Not much clarity.
Ok call that a whiff. . . Initial unemployment claims were released today and showed a decline. I'm going to keep my eye on these series and see if the two continue to diverge . . .
Greg I wouldn't worry about the whiff. The way initial claims works is that once a person claims during that state's fiscal UI year the person then files continuing claims (whether they have interim employment or not). So many people are in the "bouncing employed" category I'm sure the continuing claims number is going to be just as high as ever.
People have been out of work so long the only really valid measure of workforce is the number of people working as a percent of total available workforce. I think it's somewhere around 58% right now... a frighteningly low figure.
Greg I wouldn't worry about the whiff. The way initial claims works is that once a person claims during that state's fiscal UI year the person then files continuing claims (whether they have interim employment or not). So many people are in the "bouncing employed" category I'm sure the continuing claims number is going to be just as high as ever.
ReplyDeletePeople have been out of work so long the only really valid measure of workforce is the number of people working as a percent of total available workforce. I think it's somewhere around 58% right now... a frighteningly low figure.