The economy continues to improve:
The U.S. jobs market is showing signs of improvement and inflation remains low in the economy outside the energy sector, government reports on Thursday said.
The number of Americans filing an initial claim for jobless benefits fell last week to the lowest level since early February, the Labor Department said, a hopeful sign for job seekers.
Underlying inflation, stripping out volatile food and energy costs rose 0.1 percent in September, in line with expectations. Over the last 12 months, the core CPI has risen just 1.2 percent, the smallest increase since February 1966, the department said.
“By and large these numbers so far today show a strong economy,” said Pierre Ellis, senior international economist at Decision Economics.
First-time filings for state unemployment aid fell 4,000 last week to 384,000 from the previous week. The number was broadly in line with analysts’ expectations that claims would be 388,000.
“The jobless numbers were certainly encouraging. We got a decline and it suggests that the labor market is recovering,” said Parul Jain, Nomura Securities International.
It was the second week in a row that claims came in under 400,000. Economists say claims above 400,000 suggest a deteriorating jobs market.
Why does it always seem that bad news for Democrats is good news for the rest of the country?
*** Update ***
Of course, Atrios shows why he continues to be a dishonest, semi-literate hack:
Congratulations to the 384K new jobless, and the 6K who we missed last week.
Moderately good news, or at least not horribly bad news.