Initial claims for unemployment in the first half of 2018, as of today, are running at an annual rate of 11.8 million.
In the first half of 2017 the annual rate had been 12.7 million.
The difference is an extra 17,307 people NOT losing their jobs every week compared with a year ago.
The employment to population ratio is still way down at 60.4%, last exampled in late 1985. We did a lot better than that for a long time, before the freakout in the second half of 2008.
