Another update on the labor market and another reason to worry.
The offending statistics today come in this morning’s news on initial jobless claims, which rose sharply last week to 573,000. At this point, no should be shocked to learn that the lines at the unemployment offices around the country are growing longer by the week. Nonetheless, the rapid increase in striking, as our chart below shows.
Even by the negatively skewed standards of late, last week’s 58,000 rise in new filings for unemployment was unusually large —the highest weekly advance, in fact, in more than three years.