WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits plummeted last week to 352,000, the fewest since April 2008. The decline added to evidence that the job market is strengthening.
Weekly applications fell 50,000, the biggest drop in the seasonally adjusted figure in more than six years, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, which smooths out fluctuations, dropped to 379,000. That’s the second-lowest such figure in more than three years.
A department spokesman cautioned that volatility at this time of year is common. Applications had jumped two weeks ago, largely because companies laid off thousands of temporary workers hired for the holidays.
When weekly applications fall consistently below 375,000, it usually signals that hiring is strong enough to push down the unemployment rate.
Hiring improved in the second half of 2011. In December, employers added 200,000 jobs. That marked the sixth straight month in which the economy added at least 100,000 jobs. And the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, a three-year low.
For all of 2011, the economy added 1.6 million jobs. That was up sharply from 940,000 in 2010. Economists say they expect roughly 1.9 million more jobs to be added this year, according to a survey by The Associated Press.
Still, the job market has a long way to go before it fully recovers from the damage of the Great Recession, which wiped out 8.7 million jobs. More than 13 million people remain unemployed. Millions more have given up looking for work and so are no longer counted as unemployed.
The manufacturing sector remains a bright spot. Factory output jumped 0.9 percent in December, the Federal Reserve said this week. That was the sharpest monthly gain in a year. Manufacturing gained 225,000 jobs last year, the most since 1997.
The pickup in hiring reflects stronger economic growth. The economy likely grew at an annual rate of about 3 percent in the final three months of last year, economists estimate.
That would be a sharp improvement over the 1.8 percent annual growth rate in the July-September quarter. Rising consumer spending is thought to be fueling much of the gain in the current quarter.
Even so, economists worry that growth could slow in the first half of 2012. Europe is almost certain to fall into recession because of its financial troubles.
And wages failed to keep pace with inflation last year. Without more jobs and higher pay, consumers might have to cut back on spending. That would weigh down growth next year. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.
In spite of significant and constant GOP opposition, the economy is moving in the right direction. Let’s hope it doesn’t get derailed again before we are further down the road to recovery.
Why is it that some people cant see that whenever a republican is in office things go bad for the economy.. Democrats in office and things go good.. Lets not test our memory too hard think back to Reagan, Reaganomics? Failure. Clinton? We thrived.. Bush we went downhill id wager to say it killed our economy.. I read a lot of these posts and i keep hearing how Bush was god and he did nothing but help us? Where? Some say Clinton was a failure? Where and How? When he left office people were happy, working, and the economy was in the black.. In walks Bush and within the first few months he is raising the debt ceiling and we are deep in the red.. And they blame that on Clinton? What gives are we that blind as a society? Last night I’m watching late night msnbc and I’m hearing people say how Obama is a welfare president or a food stamp president.. They are blaming him for the economy. The economy was tanked prior to him by Bush.. What are they talking about food stamp president? What happened with everyone loosing jobs happened at the end of the Bush administration.. Cant you see that? Obama is doing his best to repair what damage has been done by republican president G.W.Bush and I stand behind him.. The lies that Romney, Gingrich and the others are telling don’t wash with me.. I have seen the truth and I know better.. President Obama you have my vote cause the others are gonna be worse than Bush ever was.
AP story. Doesn’t factor in all the people who can’t claim unemployment anymore because benefits have ended.
It’s the unemployment RATE (8.5%) that doesn’t factor in the people whose benefits have expired. The weekly numbers, as these are, report the number of NEW filings.
I stand corrected. I was drinking. :-P
I still don’t believe an AP story. Things are pretty bad. And getting worse.