The Department of Labor is reporting that there were 390,000 initial claims for unemployment. This represents:
[A] decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 400,000. The 4-week moving average was 400,000, a decrease of 5,250 from the previous week's revised average of 405,250.
Both the initial claims for the week and the four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly, are at the lowest level they have been since April. That's a hopeful sign—still too high, but getting closer to the 375,000 claims that would signal sustainable growth.
One upcoming piece of damage to unemployed people and the jobs economy is that Republicans are, of course, dragging their heels about extending emergency unemployment benefits. The current extensions expire on Dec. 31, and if not renewed, 1.8 million people could lose their benefits in January.
The Democrats of the House Ways and Means Committee are asking for people to tell their stories of unemployment, and they have collected many that show the devastating effects of long-term unemployment—and the extent to which unemployment insurance helps people keep their lives together to some small extent as they struggle to find work in an economy with no jobs:
“I am coming up to my year of being unemployed. I am 50 years old college educated and lost my job when my employer closed the business. I have applied for everything...jobs making half and more of my original wage. No luck...I cannot afford to go back to school and start over and nobody would hire someone my age by the time I would get out of school. I have three children, a mortgage with only 8 years left to pay, a dog and two cats. My husband has been working but his hours were cut to nothing and has been working temporary to fill in. If I lose the rest of my extension we will have to apply for welfare if I don't get a real job. Working at Walmart or McDonald's for minimum wage would not help...still would lose the house besides I already tried....over qualified. In July I applied for a 4 week assignment in my field and was told by the recruiter that I did not have any recent experience....just for not working in my field for 7 months now I cannot do it anymore?????” – Nina of Minneapolis, MN
Read more or tell your story; this week's drop to a seven-month low doesn't mean action isn't required to help the long-term unemployed and our economy.