Weekly Unemployment Claims

Weekly unemployment claims rose to 473,000, up from last week's revised number of 442,000.
From Calculated Risk:

"The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims decreased this week by 1,500 to 467,500.

The current level of 473,000 (and 4-week average of 467,500) are very high and suggest continuing job losses in February."

More not so good news on the jobs front. I'm starting to grow impatient, at some point we're going to need to see this turn around. The trend is very worrisome considering the government stimulus money has already had its biggest affect and interest rates will likely rise as the Fed ends its purchases of mortgage backed securities. Combine this with the stronger dollar, which obviously won't help export markets, and you have a recipe for more stagnant job numbers. Sad...