Economics Update

Unemployment Claims 2008-Present

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Things aren't getting better, they are just running out of people to lay off.
H/t The Washington Independent.

It's jobless Thursday, and initial unemployment claims are back in the 450K-480K "sweet" spot, with initial claims rising 13,000 to 462K, the 4 week moving average rising 2¼K to 459,000, though both continuing and emergency claims fell.

Seeing as how the number really needs to be below 300,000 for any meaningful recovery in jobs, we remain in a bad place.

In non-existent inflation land, we saw producer prices rise 0.4% in September, though that was largely on food, the core rate was 0.1%, and the price of imports fell by 0.3%, even as the trade deficit rose.

I would note here to all the free trade fetishists, we have a deflation problem in our economy right now, and most of it is being imported.

Meanwhile, the us dollar has fallen to a low for the year.