The good US economic news Thread

[Oakvale]

Good news today - GDP stayed flat at a 'meh' 3%... but GDI (measures gross domestic income rather than production) hit a pretty impressive 4.4%!

Link at the Wall Street Journal.

Also, initial claims hit another four year low - they're now at their lowest level since April '08.

e: To clarify, in theory the GDP & GDI numbers should be equal, but since this isn't an exact science, they're usually revised until they are. The good news here is that GDP's generally revised toward GDI.

[Oakvale]

Yeah, we should have a "meh economic news" thread for the jobs report.

Not bad, but hardly good numbers. Still, it doesn't change the overall forecast - accounting for the unseasonably warm winter etc., just unfortunately means that the recovery didn't accelerate in March.

Meh.

[Oakvale]

U.S. jobless claims fall 5,000 to 348,000

Applications for benefits at lowest level since February 2008

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Applications for weekly unemployment benefits set a new four-year low, the government reported Thursday, in another sign that the U.S. labor market continues to gradually improve.

Initial claims fell by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000, the lowest level since February 2008, the Labor Department said.

Claims from the prior week were revised up to 353,000 from an original reading of 351,000.

The level of claims is an indicator of whether layoffs are rising or falling. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had estimated claims would rise to 353,000 in the week ended March 17.

The four-week average of claims, meanwhile, dipped 1,250 to 355,000, just slightly above a four-year low. The monthly average provides a more accurate view of labor-market trends by reducing week-to-week volatility caused by seasonal quirks.

Claims usually range between 300,000 and 400,000 when the economy is growing. New applications for benefits fell below the key 400,000 threshold in the first week of January and have remained there since. Lately claims have settled in the 350,000 range.

Improvement in the labor market is reflected by the monthly employment figures. The U.S. economy has created an average of 245,000 jobs in each of the past three months, the fastest burst of hiring since the recession officially ended in mid-2009.

“The key point here is that the underlying trend in claims is downward, and the current level is already low enough to be consistent with payroll gains around the 250,000 mark,” said chief U.S. economist Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-jobless-claims-fall-5000-to-348000-2012-03-22

Er, 

Update -- the numbers were WRONG!

Weekly Jobless Claims Hit Higher Level Than Expected

Published: Thursday, 19 Apr 2012

By: Reuters   
 
New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell less than expected last week, according to a government report on Thursday that could dampen hopes of a pick-up in job creation in April after March's slowdown.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/47098817

What? The numbers from this week were disappointing so the numbers from the end of March are wrong?

[Oakvale]

I don't have a link to hand because I'm lazy, but apparently initial claims plunged by the most in nearly a year, which is nice. CARLHAYDEN was spotted walking into the ocean.

[Oakvale]

I don't have a link to hand because I'm lazy, but apparently initial claims plunged by the most in nearly a year, which is nice. CARLHAYDEN was spotted walking into the ocean.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of people who applied for jobless benefits fell last week for the first time in a month to just slightly above a four-year low, according to the latest government data.

I guess the April Jobs report will be bleak today, but the May one should be good news then.

Pretty much! An uninspiring 115k jobs, rate down to 8.1% as growth slows in the least surprising jobs report ever.

Good news on revisions, though - March up to 154k, February up to 258k! By the looks of things this should get revised upward a little, too.

[Oakvale]

bacon king you didn't account for sharia law in your alleged post

[Oakvale]

Oh my! Flee, flee, Bacon King, lest you be skewered by the sheer force of HAYDEN's intellect.

[Oakvale]

Cross your fingers and pray, everyone.

The article's behind a paywall, but the headline's all you need.