Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims August 22 2013

Today’s jobless claims report showed increases to both initial and continued unemployment claims as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400K level.

Seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims rose by 13,000 to 336,000 claims from 323,000 claims for the prior week while seasonally adjusted “continued” claims rose by 29,000 claims to 2.999 million resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 2.3%.

Since the middle of 2008 though, two federal government sponsored “extended” unemployment benefit programs (the “extended benefits” and “EUC 2008” from recent legislation) have been picking up claimants that have fallen off of the traditional unemployment benefits rolls.

Currently there are some 1.50 million people receiving federal “extended” unemployment benefits.

Taken together with the latest 2.86 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 4.36 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.

Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims August 08 2013

Today’s jobless claims report showed increases to both initial and continued unemployment claims as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400K level.

Seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims rose by 5,000 to 333,000 claims from 328,000 claims for the prior week while seasonally adjusted “continued” claims rose by 67,000 claims to 3.018 million resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 2.3%.

Since the middle of 2008 though, two federal government sponsored “extended” unemployment benefit programs (the “extended benefits” and “EUC 2008” from recent legislation) have been picking up claimants that have fallen off of the traditional unemployment benefits rolls.

Currently there are some 1.51 million people receiving federal “extended” unemployment benefits.

Taken together with the latest 2.92 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 4.44 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.

Envisioning Employment: Employment Situation July 2013

Today’s Employment Situation Report indicated that in July, net non-farm payrolls increased by 162,000 jobs overall with the private non-farm payrolls sub-component adding 161,000 jobs while the civilian unemployment rate declined to 7.4% over the same period.

Net private sector jobs increased 0.14% since last month climbing 2.07% above the level seen a year ago but remained 1.28% below the peak level of employment seen in December 2007.

Recovery-less Recovery: Unemployment Duration July 2013

Today's employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed improved in July while still remaining distressed by historic standards.

Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more declined to 4.246 million or 37.0% of all unemployed workers while the median term of unemployment declined to 15.7 weeks and the average stay on unemployment increased to 36.6 weeks.

Looking at the charts below (click for super interactive versions) you can see that today’s sorry situation far exceeds even the conditions seen during the double-dip recessionary period of the early 1980s, long considered by economists to be the worst period of unemployment since the Great Depression.

Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims August 01 2013

Today’s jobless claims report showed declines to both initial and continued unemployment claims as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400K level.

Seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims declined by 19,000 to 326,000 claims from 345,000 claims for the prior week while seasonally adjusted “continued” claims declined by 52,000 claims to 2.951 million resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 2.3%.

Since the middle of 2008 though, two federal government sponsored “extended” unemployment benefit programs (the “extended benefits” and “EUC 2008” from recent legislation) have been picking up claimants that have fallen off of the traditional unemployment benefits rolls.

Currently there are some 1.56 million people receiving federal “extended” unemployment benefits.

Taken together with the latest 3.05 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 4.61 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.

ADP National Employment Report: July 2013

Today, private staffing and business services firm ADP released the latest installment of their National Employment Report indicating that the situation for private employment in the U.S. improved in July as private employers added 200,000 jobs in the month bringing the total employment level 1.79% above the level seen in July 2012.

Look for Friday’s BLS Employment Situation Report to likely show somewhat similar trends.

Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims July 11 2013

Today’s jobless claims report showed an increase to both initial and continued unemployment claims as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400K level.

Seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims increased by 16,000 to 360,000 claims from 344,000 claims for the prior week while seasonally adjusted “continued” claims increased by 24,000 claims to 2.977 million resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 2.3%.

Since the middle of 2008 though, two federal government sponsored “extended” unemployment benefit programs (the “extended benefits” and “EUC 2008” from recent legislation) have been picking up claimants that have fallen off of the traditional unemployment benefits rolls.

Currently there are some 1.64 million people receiving federal “extended” unemployment benefits.

Taken together with the latest 2.78 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 4.43 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.

Envisioning Employment: Employment Situation June 2013

Last week’s Employment Situation Report indicated that in June, net non-farm payrolls increased by 195,000 jobs overall with the private non-farm payrolls sub-component adding 202,000 jobs while the civilian unemployment rate went flat at 7.6% over the same period.

Net private sector jobs increased 0.18% since last month climbing 2.11% above the level seen a year ago but remained 1.40% below the peak level of employment seen in December 2007.

Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims June 20 2013

Today’s jobless claims report showed an increase to initial unemployment claims and a decrease to continued unemployment claims as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400K level.

Seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims increased by 18,000 to 354,000 claims from 336,000 claims for the prior week while seasonally adjusted “continued” claims declined by 40,000 claims to 2.951 million resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 2.3%.

Since the middle of 2008 though, two federal government sponsored “extended” unemployment benefit programs (the “extended benefits” and “EUC 2008” from recent legislation) have been picking up claimants that have fallen off of the traditional unemployment benefits rolls.

Currently there are some 1.68 million people receiving federal “extended” unemployment benefits.

Taken together with the latest 2.77 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 4.46 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.

SNAP Food Stamp Participation: March 2013

As a logical consequence of the prolonged economic downturn, participation in the federal food stamp program is continuing to rise.

In fact, household participation has been climbing so steadily that it has dwarfed the last peak (which looks like a minor blip by comparison) set as a result of the immediate fallout following hurricane Katrina.

The latest data released by the Department of Agriculture indicated that in March, a notable 168,888 individual recipients were added to the food stamps program with the current total increasing 2.85% on a year-over-year basis.

Individuals receiving food stamp benefits increased to 47.72 million which, as a ratio of the overall civilian non-institutional population now stands at a whopping 19.48% of the population.

Households receiving food stamps benefits increased by 109,731 to 23.11 million households with the current total rising 3.86% above the level seen a year earlier

As participation continues to swell, so too has the total nominal benefit cost climbing 2.58% on a year-over-year basis to $6.34 billion for the month.

Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims May 16 2013

Today’s jobless claims report showed a notable increase to initial unemployment claims and a slight decline to continued unemployment claims as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400K level.

Seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims increased by 32,000 to 360,000 claims from 328,000 claims for the prior week while seasonally adjusted “continued” claims declined by 4,000 claims to 3.009 million resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 2.3%.

Since the middle of 2008 though, two federal government sponsored “extended” unemployment benefit programs (the “extended benefits” and “EUC 2008” from recent legislation) have been picking up claimants that have fallen off of the traditional unemployment benefits rolls.

Currently there are some 1.79 million people receiving federal “extended” unemployment benefits.

Taken together with the latest 2.97 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 4.76 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.

SNAP Food Stamp Participation: February 2013

As a logical consequence of the prolonged economic downturn, participation in the federal food stamp program is continuing to rise.

In fact, household participation has been climbing so steadily that it has dwarfed the last peak (which looks like a minor blip by comparison) set as a result of the immediate fallout following hurricane Katrina.

The latest data released by the Department of Agriculture indicated that in February, a notable 213,962 individual recipients were removed from the food stamps program with the current total still increasing 2.66% on a year-over-year basis.

Individuals receiving food stamp benefits declined to 47.55 million which, as a ratio of the overall civilian non-institutional population, declined 1.66% since February 2012 to now stand at a whopping 19.42% of the population.

Households receiving food stamps benefits declined by 82,324 to 23 million households with the current total rising 3.84% above the level seen a year earlier

As participation continues to swell, so too has the total nominal benefit cost climbing 2.32% on a year-over-year basis to $6.30 billion for the month.

Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims May 09 2013

Today’s jobless claims report showed a decline to both initial and continued unemployment claims as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400K level.

Seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims declined by 4,000 to 323,000 claims from 327,000 claims for the prior week while seasonally adjusted “continued” claims declined by 27,000 claims to 3.005 million resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 2.3%.

Since the middle of 2008 though, two federal government sponsored “extended” unemployment benefit programs (the “extended benefits” and “EUC 2008” from recent legislation) have been picking up claimants that have fallen off of the traditional unemployment benefits rolls.

Currently there are some 1.76 million people receiving federal “extended” unemployment benefits.

Taken together with the latest 3.02 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 4.79 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.

Envisioning Employment: Employment Situation April 2013

Today’s Employment Situation Report indicated that in April, net non-farm payrolls increased by 165,000 jobs overall with the private non-farm payrolls sub-component adding 176,000 jobs while the civilian unemployment rate declined to 7.5% over the same period.

Net private sector jobs increased 0.16% since last month climbing 1.94% above the level seen a year ago but remained 1.76% below the peak level of employment seen in December 2007.

ADP National Employment Report: April 2013

Today, private staffing and business services firm ADP released the latest installment of their National Employment Report indicating that the situation for private employment in the U.S. improved in April as private employers added 119,000 jobs in the month bringing the total employment level 1.57% above the level seen in April 2012.

Perusing the rest of the data in the ADP dataset you can see the the economy is currently showing the most growth for small to mid-sized service providing jobs with goods-producing jobs remaining near trough levels.

Look for Friday’s BLS Employment Situation Report to likely show somewhat similar trends.

Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims April 25 2013

Today’s jobless claims report showed a decline to both initial and continued unemployment claims as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400K level.

Seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims declined by 16,000 to 339,000 claims from 355,000 claims for the prior week while seasonally adjusted “continued” claims declined by 93,000 claims to 3.0 million resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 2.3%.

Since the middle of 2008 though, two federal government sponsored “extended” unemployment benefit programs (the “extended benefits” and “EUC 2008” from recent legislation) have been picking up claimants that have fallen off of the traditional unemployment benefits rolls.

Currently there are some 1.79 million people receiving federal “extended” unemployment benefits.

Taken together with the latest 3.20 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 4.99 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.

Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims April 18 2013

Today’s jobless claims report showed an increase to initial unemployment claims and a decline to continued unemployment claims as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400K level.

Seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims increased by 4,000 to 352,000 claims from 348,000 claims for the prior week while seasonally adjusted “continued” claims declined by 35,000 claims to 3.068 million resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 2.4%.

Since the middle of 2008 though, two federal government sponsored “extended” unemployment benefit programs (the “extended benefits” and “EUC 2008” from recent legislation) have been picking up claimants that have fallen off of the traditional unemployment benefits rolls.

Currently there are some 1.78 million people receiving federal “extended” unemployment benefits.

Taken together with the latest 3.29 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 5.07 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.

Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims April 11 2013

Today’s jobless claims report showed declines to both initial and continued unemployment claims as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400K level.

Seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims declined by a notable 42,000 to 346,000 claims from 388,000 claims for the prior week while seasonally adjusted “continued” claims declined by 12,000 claims to 3.079 million resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 2.4%.

Since the middle of 2008 though, two federal government sponsored “extended” unemployment benefit programs (the “extended benefits” and “EUC 2008” from recent legislation) have been picking up claimants that have fallen off of the traditional unemployment benefits rolls.

Currently there are some 1.83 million people receiving federal “extended” unemployment benefits.

Taken together with the latest 3.35 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 5.18 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.

Envisioning Employment: Employment Situation March 2013

Today’s Employment Situation Report indicated that in March, net non-farm payrolls increased just 88,000 jobs overall with the private non-farm payrolls sub-component adding just 95,000 jobs while the civilian unemployment rate declined to 7.6% over the same period.

Net private sector jobs increased 0.08% since last month climbing 1.78% above the level seen a year ago but remained 2.02% below the peak level of employment seen in December 2007.

Recovery-less Recovery: Unemployment Duration March 2013

Today's employment situation report showed that conditions for the long term unemployed were mixed in March while still remaining distressed by historic standards.

Workers unemployed 27 weeks or more declined to 4.611 million or 39.6% of all unemployed workers while the median term of unemployment increased to 18.1 weeks and the average stay on unemployment increased to 37.1 weeks.

Looking at the charts below (click for super interactive versions) you can see that today’s sorry situation far exceeds even the conditions seen during the double-dip recessionary period of the early 1980s, long considered by economists to be the worst period of unemployment since the Great Depression.