Unadjusted Year Over Year: Labor Department Initial Jobless Claims Up 3%

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

• Associated Press Headline And Lead: "New jobless claims drop to 512K, lowest since Jan.... The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits last week fell to the lowest level in 10 months, evidence that job cuts are easing as the economy slowly heals."
• Labor Department News Release: click here. 
• Key Numbers: "The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 480,178 in the week ending Oct. 31, a decrease of 14,216 from the previous week. There were 466,341 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008. "
• My Spreadsheet (click Download 20091015yoy).

Here's my uneducated interpretation - A better than usual data point. Someday soon I expect we'll have a positive year-over-year number. But it still seems to me that initial jobless claims indicate that unemployment is still rising and will continue to rise for some time.

MontyHigh, www.worldofwallstreet.us

P.S., its not worth mentioning because it happens every week, but even though things are getting worse (initial jobless claims indicate that unemployment is still rising), AP insists on assuming that things are getting better.