Unemployment: I’m Surprised at the Surprise

Someone has to say it.  It desperately needs to be said.

Does ANYONE know the meaning of “unexpectedly?”

Headlines announcing the new unemployment claims spread across America this morning.

Surprise

More than expected

Anemic growth

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

At some point, having been disappointed time and time again, a person has to go back and challenge his assumptions.

Reports like this can not continue to surprise:

(Reuters) – New claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week to the highest level since early April, highlighting a weak labor market and the fragile economic recovery.

“While these numbers are volatile, we haven’t really made progress in the labor market and that’s kind of troubling when you think about the broader economic recovery,” said Andrew Gledhill, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

“For the recovery to turn into a self-sustaining expansion, we need people to have wage income coming in and until that happens, we are still in a tenuous position.”

The obvious question, the one that simply HAS to be asked is, “How do we get people to have wages, to get jobs?”  The answer is, of course, for businesses to begin to hire.

And they aren’t.  At least they aren’t right now and not for the near future either.

Until something changes, words like “surprised” and “expected” should be checked at the door.  There is nothing surprising about these numbers any longer.

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