Claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week, a sign the labor market is struggling to gain traction more than two years after the recession ended.| Yahoo Finance actually used 'unexpectedly' in the first sentence in their version of this story. |
Companies are stepping up the pace of firings, raising the risk that consumer spending will slow further. Job growth stagnated last month and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.1 percent, the Labor Department reported last week. The Labor Department said there was no national effect from Hurricane Irene.
"Especially with the double-dip recession risk rising, firms are cutting labor costs," Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina, said before the report. "They are not quite ready to ramp up production and create the jobs needed for our struggling economy."
Really? Seriously? After all this time and all these months of jobless claims growing or staying high you say this one is "Unexpected" again? Can we please deport all these "economists" to Outer Mongolia?
| I love the quote: "they are not quite ready...", as if it's only one or two small details that need to be squared away before we get going on big-time hiring. |