Upon Review, Jobs Picture Not So Pretty

Originally published by Fox Business. The Department of Labor has revised higher the number of people who filed for unemployment benefits for the first time in 58 out of the last 59 weeks. The same has held true since the beginning of the year. There have been 14 weeks of jobless data this year, and there have been 14 revisions. And all 14 were revisions that made the claims picture higher than what the government originally reported. Take a look at the most recent jobless claims data. The Labor Department said 386,000 new claims were filed last week, which is high, but it was at least down from the 388,000 the prior week. But the prior week, claims were actually initially reported at 380,000. The problem is, Labor revised the prior week higher to 388,000, meaning the rise in unemployment claims this week, presto, became a drop. And according to Labor Department data, initial jobless claims were understated by more than 100,000 since last November. Meaning, 100,000 more people actually had filed jobless claims than initially reported. Continue reading this article here.