Job Market Recovery?
Mason Koeff, Staff Writer
The nation’s job recovery is on the climb but has suffered some setbacks in the past few weeks. The supposed recovery was challenged last week when the number of Americans filing for unemployment last week grew for the first time in a while says the Labor Department.
The number of claims rose to 474,000 on April 30th, that’s over 43,000 more claims than the previous week. That means it tops the highs of august surprising many economists in this supposed economic recovery. Economists predicted that by now the unemployment claims would have dropped to 400,000 unemployed claims.
This increase in claims puzzles economists and sends them searching for possible explanations. Some possible reasons could be layoffs in the auto industry because of the earthquake in Japan. Higher gas prices are another possible candidate for the raise in claims.
The government usually adjusts these numbers to account for the distortion. But this time around, a government official says the claims related to New York spring break were not factored into that adjustment.
Another factor that could have distorted the numbers slightly is an emergency benefits program in Oregon.
States reporting the highest increase in claims are states affected by the earthquake in Japan, where things like the transportation industry was affected by higher gas prices.
The Japanese earthquake in March disrupted international supply chains, particularly for auto parts, and the effects are still rippling through the economy, said Jennifer Lee, senior economist with BMO Capital Markets.
Jennifer Lee, senior economist later states "I think we might see more of a dampening impact from the auto sector in the next few months at least."
Recently fortune five hundred companies have had openings for over 96,000 jobs.
The number of Americans filing for ongoing claims rose 74,000 to 3,733,000 on April 23, this marks the largest weekly increase since July.