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Thursday Night Music: Steely Dan, 'Kid Charlemagne'

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3 wood6/11/2009 7:47:19 pm PDT

So how is the Obama stimulus plan working so far?

Initial jobless claims fall; ongoing claims set record


WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — While first-time claims for state unemployment benefits have declined or been flat over the most recent four weeks of data, ongoing claims have continued to reach fresh weekly highs, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The number of initial claims fell 24,000 to 601,000 in the week ended June 6. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected an initial claims level of 620,000. See Economic Calendar. In the week ended May 30, continuing claims for benefits reached a new record high, rising 59,000 to 6.82 million from an upwardly revised level in the prior week.

The report is a “mixed bag,” showing that the labor market isn’t hiring, even though firing may have slowed, wrote Ian Pollick, economics strategist with TD Securities, in a research note.

“On balance, the decline in initial claims is supportive of the argument that job destruction is beginning to slow within the U.S. labor market,” Pollick wrote. “On the flip side though, the gallop in continuing claims as well as the increase in the four-week moving average for the continuing claims component suggests that the duration of unemployment continues to hover at record lengths, as the pace of job creation has come to a virtual stand-still.”

These are actual real numbers, not the made up fantasy that Obama has been giving to his worshipers in the White House press corps.