December 31, 2003

Jobless Claims Plunge

The Bush Boom rolls on, with a sharp plunge in new applications for unemployment compensation hitting their lowest level in nearly three years last week. Reuters says the data is "boosting hopes that employment is finally beginning to show sustained growth."

The level of new claims was the lowest since President Bush's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2001. First-time jobless claims were much lower than Wall Street economists' forecast for 355,000 claims. The department originally reported new claims for the week ended Dec. 20 at 353,000.

"At 339,000 new claims, you're well within the range that you'd expecting a growing economy, even in a briskly growing economy," said Patrick Fearon, an economist for A.G. Edwards and Sons. "Seasonality around the holidays can have an impact, but when claims are down that low and when you had a pretty good downtrend I think you can be pretty confident that at the very least the labor market is strengthening," Fearon said.