-
Jobless claims tell us 30 million people are unemployed, but many doubt it’s that bad
What the heck is really going on in the labor market? Are 30 million Americans unemployed? Or is it 17 million? Are companies bringing back millions of workers? Or laying even more people off? It’s hard to get a clear answer from the government’s two main tools to assess the labor market. Weekly jobless claims and the monthly employment report appear to tell very different stories.Consider jobless claims. Although they have fallen from a peak of nearly 7 million in late March, more than 1 million new applications for unemployment benefits are being filed each week. And that doesn’t even include workers who ... (full story)