Layoffs Easing
Just out from the AP: total unemployment insurance claims fell for the first time since January:
The Labor Department said the total unemployment insurance rolls fell by 148,000 to 6.69 million in the week ending June 6, the largest drop in more than seven years. The decline is a sign that layoffs are easing.
The drop also breaks a string of 21 straight increases in continuing claims, the last 19 of which were records. A dip in continuing claims several weeks ago was later revised higher.
This could signal a “slowing of the rise” in unemployment claims. Â That is, things are not getting better, but rather not getting bad as quickly as they were before. Â I imagine calculus teachers across the country are glad that the notion of the second derivative is finding such broad adoption.
