Today’s update on new jobless claims for last week shows a gain in the number of freshly minted unemployed, but that doesn’t mean the general decline is over.
New filings for unemployment benefits jumped last week by 17,000 to 474,000, the Labor Department reports. But as you can see from the chart below, the overall trend has is down, albeit interrupted at times by temporary setbacks. Last week dispensed another one of those setbacks.
But barring some dramatic new and unexpected event with hefty negative consequences, weekly jobless claims are likely to drift lower in the months ahead. The economy is recovering, albeit slowly and in fits and starts, but the recovery rolls on. It remains to be seen just how durable this expansion will be, but for the moment the growth, light and tenuous as it is, has legs.