Wires Trumpet '5-Year Low' in Seasonally Adjusted Jobless Claims, Igno

January 17th, 2013 10:49 AM
None of the three major wire services covering today's report from the Department of Labor on initial unemployment claims is reporting the major news: For the first time in a long while, actual claims filed during the most recent week ended January 12 were almost 6 percent higher than the number filed during last year's comparable week, an indication that the current employment market may be…

Wires Ignore Bad News in Raw Unemployment Claims Data

December 13th, 2012 4:24 PM
Today's news from the Department of Labor on initial weekly unemployment claims was supposedly good -- as long as one doesn't scratch beneath the surface. Journalists used to do that. Today they didn't. All one had to do is reach the third paragraph of DOL's release to realize that today's seasonally adjusted claims number of 343,000, touted as the lowest in two months in several news reports…

What the Business Press Won't Tell Us: Single-Family Home Sales Are St

October 24th, 2012 10:06 PM
The Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters all eagerly told readers today that the seasonally adjusted annualized level of single-family home sales in September of 389,000 was the highest in 2-1/2 years and really, really good news for the housing market, the economy as a whole, or both. What they all "somehow" failed to mention was the fact that sales are still far below where they were…

At AP, Big Jobless Claims Miss Due to 'Seasonal Issues'; Consistent Ca

July 19th, 2012 9:59 AM
Todays unemployment claims release from the Department of Labor reported that initial jobless aid applications for the week ended July 14 were 386,000 after seasonal adjustment. Business Insider's email this morning carried a prediction of 364,000. Bloomberg's consensus prediction was 365,000. At the Associated Press, in his 8:45 a.m. dispatch (saved here for future reference, fair use and…

As Usual, Press Fails to Note How Last Week's Jobless Claims Were Revi

May 24th, 2012 11:42 AM
Last week, what the Department of Labor had originally reported as a dip in new unemployment claims the previous week (from 368,000 to 367,000) was revised into an increase (to 370,000). This week, what DOL originally reported was a no-change situation (i.e., 370,000) was revised into an increase (to 372,000). It's getting ever more difficult to accept DOL's ongoing underestimations, which…

Wires Trumpet Unemployment Claims As Tying '4-Year Low'; Historical Ch

March 15th, 2012 1:18 PM
The exercise of watching the press report on the current week's unemployment claims figure as if it's etched in stone and assessing it as if it's the last word -- only to see the figure get upwardly revised the next week virtually without media comment -- is getting extraordinarily tedious and predictable (but of course watching what they do remains necessary).  At the Associated Press,…

Bloomberg Predictably Drops 'Unexpectedly' From Consumer Confidence Re

June 28th, 2011 7:06 PM
It looks like someone in the establishment business press might be getting a little touchy about the razzing they continually receive for delivering "unexpectedly" bad economic news. As captured by Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit and corroborated in this Google News description, Bloomberg's 10:16 a.m. report on consumer sentiment told readers that "Consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in June…