The report for the last week of 2013 is here.
At the current average per week in the last month sustained over a whole year the result would yield 22.6 million first time claims. That doesn't square with the claim that the economy is now in full trot as one headline puts it this morning.
17.75 million actual first time claims for unemployment in 2013, not-seasonally-adjusted, represents the best showing yet under Obama, but still far above George W. Bush's best years in the 16 million range when participation rates were much higher.
With nearly 12 million people having left the labor force since Obama was elected in 2008, far too many of those still working in a much smaller labor pool continue to lose their jobs every week. The levels today only seem less alarming because we remember them from when labor force participation rates were much higher. Now that they are not and levels are still high shows that labor is still flat on its back in this country.
If this is the best Obama can do, it's going to be a very long three more years.
