EconomicCrisis.US

New claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, a government report showed on Thursday, but the underlying trend continued to point to improving labor market conditions.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 381,000, the Labor Department said. The prior week’s claims data was revised up to 366,000 from the previously reported 364,000.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 375,000. A Labor Department official said that because of a public holiday on Monday, claims from seven states – including California and Virginia – had been estimated.
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The dark clouds over the U.S. economy may finally be parting.

It wasn’t just the Dow’s 490-point jump to post its biggest one-day gain since March 2009.

Spend-happy holiday shoppers, an improving job market, and continued manufacturing growth all indicate things are on the right track, economists said.

“The fact that we seem to be gathering some momentum right now, that’s incredibly encouraging,” said Omair Sharif, a U.S. economist at RBS Securities.

Private companies created far more jobs than expected in November, which may bode well for Friday’s more comprehensive jobs report from the government.
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The nation’s economy gained some much-needed strength in the third quarter, as the pace of growth nearly doubled compared to the previous three months.

The nation’s gross domestic product, the broadest measure of its economic health, grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the quarter after adjusting for inflation. That’s up from the disappointing 1.3 percent growth in the second quarter and the anemic 0.4 percent pace in the first three months of the year.
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The American economy has recently slowed dramatically, and the probability of another economic downturn increases with each new round of data. This is a sharp change from the economic situation at the end of last year – and represents a return to the very weak pace of expansion since the recovery began in the summer of 2009.

Economic growth in the United States during the first three quarters of 2010 was not only slow, but was also dominated by inventory accumulation rather than sales to consumers or other forms of final sales. The last quarter of 2010 brought a welcome change, with consumer spending rising at a 4% annual rate, enough to increase total real GDP by 3.1% from the third quarter to the fourth. The economy seemed to have escaped its dependence on inventory accumulation.
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