Unadjusted Year Over Year: Labor Department Initial Jobless Claims Up 28%

Here's the scoop on the Labor Department's weekly initial jobs claims report:

• Associated Press Headline And Lead: "New jobless claims rise unexpectedly to 558K... The number of newly laid-off U.S. workers filing claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week, while the tally of continuing claims fell."
• Labor Department News Release: click here. 
• Key Numbers: "The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 479,824 in the week ending Aug. 8, an increase of 13,129 from the previous week. There were 373,858 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008."
• My Spreadsheet (click Download 20090813yoy).

Here's my uneducated interpretation - Things turned worse as unadjusted jobless claims jumped higher at a time when last year they dropped. This resulted in the Unadjusted Year Over Year rate jumping to 28% (brown with yellow triangles). The key number, in my view, is unadjusted initial jobless claims (dark blue diamonds). It moved further away from the roughly 330K value which historically has represented a bottoming of the economy and stock market. I think, based on this data, the outlook is for continued economic contraction and increasing unemployment.

MontyHigh, www.worldofwallstreet.com