patrick.net

I understand how U6 is much more accurate than U3 in stating the unemployment rate, but what I am asking about is how the INITIAL UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS number shows about 500,000 new claims every single week but the MONTHLY JOB LOSSES are reported as only about the same number.
How can their be four new unemployment claims filed for each one job lost?
This gets reported all the time in the news media but nobody ever explains it.

Usually the 250,000 number comes from either continuing claims, which can be affected by people getting jobs or losing benefits from being out of work so long (at which point they no longer count as unemployed, strangely enough). The number can also come from the assumption that, of the 2,000,000 losing their jobs, 3/4s find another job and thus do not remain unemployed. At least those are my best guesses :)

All I know is, stock market, which surged ahead based on some inflated earnings, now coming to face with,
- unemployment numbers
- low consumer confidence

(aka the 'real' economy indicators)

A bunch of people have been unemployed for a year, so they are dropping off of the rolls of the unemployed, even though they are not working. It was last August when the s#it hit the fan, and huge numbers lost their jobs. I think the same will continue until Christmas -- rosey numbers from the government, and more people without even unemployment to rely upon. I would only look at crime statisitics.

If the government extends unemployment benefits again that will allow millions more to be uncounted since
the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not count anyone on Emergency Unemployment Compensation
as getting an unemployment check even though they do.
But the BLS has so far refused to answer my question about how we can have 500,000 new claims per week, which requires that someone has already been out of work for at least a week because of the waiting period, and then at the end of the month have a total of only 250,000 jobs lost. This week the number was 558,000 "new claims" but in the entire month of July we supposedly only lost 247,000 jobs.
2 million jobs were actually lost in July.
Since each person who files a new claim must have lost a job at a covered employer that means at least 500,000 people are losing their jobs every single week, or 100,000 every work day and that does not count people who worked for employers not covered by unemployment insurance.
This is not even counting the 15 million people who are not getting unemployment benefits and were never
included in any off the numbers.