Job Losses

Not only has the state's job growth dropped back to what the state Department of Labor (er, Workforce Solutions) calls "more normal," i.e., the lower two percent range, new claims for unemployment compensation have increased all year. Why this hasn't turned into a bigger jump in unemployment is a good question, one beyond the scope of this note.
The numbers are that weekly new claims went on a run of 21 consecutive year over year increases from the week ending March 17 through the week ending August 4. In the following four weeks, claims were up twice and down twice. For the first ten weeks of 2007, claims dropped during five weeks and increased in five weeks.
When claims do increase, the percentage increase commonly seems around 25 percent. The week of April 28 was typical. The 970 new claims were a 270 claim, or 27.7 percent, increase from a year earlier.
One has to go to the feds to get these numbers. See http://www.workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/claims_arch.asp. The Department of Workforce Solutions does not post the new claims numbers. The Department of Labor did.