BREITBART.COM - Jobless Claims Plunge to Five-Year LowThat's interesting. I noticed the jobs section of the AJC this last Sunday seemed pretty thick. I've also noticed a lot of 'help wanted' signs on my daily commute. Yes, they're fast-food jobs, but they're also starter jobs - which means the folks in them have moved on elsewhere.The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in more than five years last week, providing strong evidence that the labor market is shaking off the effects of a string of devastating hurricanes.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits dropped by 35,000 to 291,000, the smallest number since Sept. 23, 2000, when the economy was in the concluding months of the longest economic expansion in history.
The decline of 35,000 claims was much better than Wall Street had been expecting and bolstered the belief that the labor market is on the mend after a rough period in the fall when Gulf Coast hurricanes caused the loss of more than 600,000 jobs over a period of four months.
Guess we'll see, but I'm cautiously optimistic.
J.