Unemployment claims continue to drive ever higher in the United States, hitting the 15th straight week of records for the week ending May 9.   Last week’s new jobless claims came in at an alarming 637,000 according to the US Department of Labor — bringing the continuing claims total to 6.56 Million. (Continuing claims data lags new jobless claims data by one week).   The unemployment rate reached 8.9% in April and judging from the new claims, is apparently continuing to rise.

The Department of Labor reports:

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending May 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 637,000, an increase of 32,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 605,000. The 4-week moving average was 630,500, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 624,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.9 percent for the week ending May 2, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 4.8 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 2 was 6,560,000, an increase of 202,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 6,358,000. The 4-week moving average was 6,337,250, an increase of 128,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 6,208,500.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 5.011 million.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DATA FOR REGULAR STATE PROGRAMS

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	Advance				Prior1
WEEK ENDING	May 9	May 2	Change	April 25	Year

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Initial Claims (SA)	637,000	605,000	+32,000	635,000	375,000
Initial Claims (NSA)	565,395	537,539	+27,856	580,377	325,480
4-Wk Moving Average (SA)	630,500	624,500	+6,000	638,250	369,500

	Advance				Prior1
WEEK ENDING	May 2	April 25	Change	April 18	Year

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Ins. Unemployment (SA)	6,560,000	6,358,000	+202,000	6,293,000	3,063,000
Ins. Unemployment (NSA)	6,166,785	6,262,622	-95,837	6,299,278	2,845,952
4-Wk Moving Average (SA)	6,337,250	6,208,500	+128,750	6,081,500	3,006,750

While most of the increase in claims is due to auto-worker layoffs,  (Chrysler laid off an estimated 27,000 workers after declaring bankruptcy on April 30th. )  we should expect an additional bout of layoffs next month when General Motors slashes jobs.

Even with such dismal employment figures, the mainstream media is awash with reports of “improvement”.  Again, we’re forced to point out that a slowing rate of decline is a far cry from actual improvement.  As we’ve noted before, pointing to the second derivative as a sign of “improvement” is akin to watching a parachutist open his chute — and as his descent begins to slow, concluding that he is about to start gaining altitude.