>"Weekly jobless claims climbed 3,000 to 422,000, their
>highest level in two months. Claims remain well above
>the 400,000 mark that economists have established as
>the delimitation between an improving and
>deteriorating job market.
>
>"The second consecutive claims figure substantially
>above 400,000 last week is particularly discouraging.
>The disappointing pickup in the pace of layoffs
>reinforces the likelihood that the FOMC will continue
>to emphasize the large amount of slack in the economy
>and downside risks with respect to inflation," said
>Jade Zelnik, chief economist at RBS Greenwich
>Capital."
Yup. The claims numbers were improving for a while, suggesting that the job market was finally about to turn, but this (to reapply the word I used to describe last Friday's employment report) sucks.
Doug