Unemployment rate slowing but still going up
Does the headline for this post sound confusing? It should. According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of people filing new unemployment claims decreased by 12,000 to 545,000 seasonally adjusted (whatever that means.) In the same release, two paragraphs later, they say that the seasonally adjusted number for insured unemployed rose to 6,230,000, an increase of 129,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 6,101,000. So. . .the rate is going down but unemployment is still rising. Gotta love the government’s numbers.
Some more interesting Numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor:
Unemployment Rate:
9.7% in Aug 2009
Historical Data
Change in Unemployment Level:
+466,000 in Aug 2009
Historical Data
Change in Employment Level:
-392,000 in Aug 2009
Historical Data
Unfortunately, for those of us who are unemployed, this looks to be a long dry spell.
