Unadjusted Year Over Year: Labor Department Initial Jobless Claims Up 26%

Here's the scoop on the Labor Department's weekly initial jobs claims report:

•Associated Press Headline And Lead: "New jobless claims dip less than expected to 570K... New jobless claims fell slightly last week while the number of people receiving unemployment benefits rose, a sign the job market's recovery will be long and bumpy."

•Labor Department News Release: click here.

•Key Numbers: "The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 452,271 in the week ending Aug. 29, a decrease of 5,002 from the previous week. There were 358,730 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008."

•My Spreadsheet (click Download 20090903yoy).
Here's my uneducated interpretation - Things remain bad with initial jobless claims still way over the roughly 330K value which historically has represented a bottoming of the economy and stock market. Year-over-year percentages are falling as the economy was hard in recession this time last year.

I think the long-term chart clearly shows how high initial jobless claims are compared to the good times. Infact, seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims are still above the peak of the dot-com recession. This data indicates that the economy is still contracting.