Jobless claims drop to 346,000
聽showed declines to both initial and continued unemployment claims as initial claims trended well below the closely watched 400K level.聽
Seasonally adjusted 鈥渋nitial鈥� unemployment claims declined by a notable 42,000 to 346,000 claims from 388,000 claims for the prior week while seasonally adjusted 鈥渃ontinued鈥� claims declined by 12,000 claims to 3.079 million resulting in an 鈥渋nsured鈥� unemployment rate of 2.4%.聽
Since the middle of 2008 though, two federal government sponsored 鈥渆xtended鈥� unemployment benefit programs (the 鈥渆xtended benefits鈥� and 鈥淓UC 2008鈥� from recent legislation) have been picking up claimants that have fallen off of the traditional unemployment benefits rolls.聽
Currently there are some 1.83 million people receiving federal 鈥渆xtended鈥� unemployment benefits.聽
Taken together with the latest 3.35 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 5.18 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.聽
