I don’t write about new jobless claims much anymore, mainly because it has been boringly good for a few years (outside of hurricane disruptions!). But there are times like this week when I am particularly thankful that I am concentrating on the one thing – the economy – that is doing unequivocally well.
Back in 2009 and 2010 when I was arguing with the Doomer dead-end recession double-dippers, I used to hear from people who were still in danger of, or worse, had been laid off. I sympathized, and just noted that, however bad things seemed, they had been even worse in 2008 and early 2009, and conditions were still going to improve.
I haven’t heard stories like that in a few years. One of my milestones was when Atrios over at the Eschaton blog stopped reporting on the weekly jobless claims as “xxx,000 new lucky duckies.”
Well, this morning, we had yet another new 48 year low in initial jobless claims, at 207,000. We had lower numbers, in the high 100,000’s, in the 1960s, but that was against a US population that was only half of what it is now.
In other words, we have never had a lower rate of layoffs for as long as records have been collected:
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I don’t write about new jobless claims much anymore, mainly because it has been boringly good for a few years (outside of hurricane disruptions!). But there are times like this week when I am particularly thankful that I am concentrating on the one thing – the economy – that is doing unequivocally well.
Back in 2009 and 2010 when I was arguing with the Doomer dead-end recession double-dippers, I used to hear from people who were still in danger of, or worse, had been laid off. I sympathized, and just noted that, however bad things seemed, they had been even worse in 2008 and early 2009, and conditions were still going to improve.
I haven’t heard stories like that in a few years. One of my milestones was when Atrios over at the Eschaton blog stopped reporting on the weekly jobless claims as “xxx,000 new lucky duckies.”
Well, this morning, we had yet another new 48 year low in initial jobless claims, at 207,000. We had lower numbers, in the high 100,000’s, in the 1960s, but that was against a US population that was only half of what it is now.
In other words, we have never had a lower rate of layoffs for as long as records have been collected:
https://angrybearblog.com/2018/07/us-layoff-rate-at-all-time-lows.html