| Submit your comments on this article |
| Economy |
| U.S. jobless claims, trade deficit on rise |
| 2010-10-15 |
| (KUNA) -- U.S. government data released on Thursday showed that new jobless claims rose last week, and the U.S. trade deficit reached 8.8 percent, hitting 46.3 billion dollars in August. Jobless claims rose by 13,000 to 462,000 in the week ended Oct. 9, U.S. Labor Department figures showed. The total number of people on unemployment insurance rolls decreased to the lowest level since November 2008, while those getting extended benefits declined. The new jobless numbers indicated the U.S. job market is still struggling. At the same time, record-high imports from China helped push the U.S. trade deficit wider in August, while rising food and energy prices pushed inflation at the wholesale level up twice as fast as expected last month. The U.S. trade deficit increase in August was pushed by record imports from China that helped the U.S. deficit with China set a new record of 28 billion dollars, the U.S. Commerce Department said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Look at U6 instead of the official U3 numbers. U6 is rarely reported. 17.1% in September.: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm |
| Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 2010-10-15 13:11 |
| #3 Commerce is cooking the books on the unemployment rate. There is no way it is only 9.7%. Heck even Yahoo had an article on distressed housing markets and they said the unemployment rates in the top ten most distressed markets were over 30%. The Department's figures are a screwy invented equation that only tracks unemployment claims. It automatically drops you off the books if you are self employed, out of work and not eligible or your unemployment compensation has run out or you are a small business owner without business... The numbers of people out of work, the numbers of small businesses closing down and the number of businesses contemplating going out of business over the healthcare bill is staggering. I would venture the true number of everyone out of work whether they are making an unemployment claim or not is well up in the 20% range for a national average. |
| Posted by: James Carville/Karl Rove 2010-10-15 10:33 |
| #2 The trade deficit is not the biggest problem we have although most of this stuff could be manufactured in the U.S. and create jobs. Wild spending, and future spending obligations by Washington are huge problems. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-10-15 10:13 |
| #1 The YTD figures are: TOTAL 55,804.6 (exports) 229,206.7 (imports) -173,402.1 (trade deficit). Each of these figures are multiplied by one million dollars. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-10-15 10:08 |