The Dow edged higher this morning after a teaser of Friday’s job report revealed a 10% increase in unemployment claims. Applications for unemployment benefits rose to their highest since last December.
“The increase in unemployment claims was driven in part by spikes in unemployment in New York and California,” says Rob Wilson, employment trends expert and President of Employco USA, a national employment solutions firm with locations across the country.
Wilson says that the increase in unemployment claims reveals that the tight labor market might be slowly softening.
“As of last week, jobless claims have continued to climb,” says Wilson. “This is what many experts such as myself have been predicting: It is no longer an employee’s market.”
Wilson says that the number of unemployment claims might be surprising for Americans who were taking our “record unemployment” at face value.
“The unemployment rate is unreliable and builds false economic hope,” says the jobs expert. “We can see this quite clearly as jobless claims continue to increase even as the unemployment rate stays low.”
Wilson says that nearly 40% of Americans aren’t even included in the labor force.
“From disabilities to active military to aforementioned stay-at-home parents, many people are not included in the unemployment rate. Yet there is still a big focus on the unemployment rate as if it is truly indicative of the health of the economy.”
