New jobless claims were up more than expected last week... supposedly due to the auto industry layoffs.  However, there are layoffs everywhere.  It shouldn't be a surprise that this number increased.  If just one of these "analysts" would be realistic about the situation there would be estimates that are right on the number. 

The Labor Department said that the number of new claims rose to a seasonally adjusted 637,000, from a revised 605,000 the previous week. That's above analysts' expectations of 610,000... nice job analyst.   So much for the recession's end being near.

Read more here.

The number of new people filing for unemployment benefits fell to 601,000, much less than the expected 634,000.  However, the rise in continuing claims to 6.35 million was registered for the week ending April 25... up from 6.30 million in the previous week and the highest tally on record dating back to 1967.

"The high level of continuing claims is a sign that many laid-off workers are having difficulty finding work."  This is a quote from the linked article.  What a genius.  There aren't any new jobs so how are people suppose to find work!  Everyone I know is waiting for a good job to open up and it's not happening.  Eventually high qualified people will have to take lower paying jobs and this will result in our economy being less robust for years and years.

Even Mr. Bernanke realizes that there are going to be a lot more jobs lost in the coming months... on Tuesday he predicted "further sizable job losses" in the coming months.  Companies are still laying off thousands of workers at a time.  Dupont just announced they're laying off 2,000 workers.  Other companies are taking every measure possible before laying people off like cutting 401k match, paycuts, and reducing travel... but this is only a temporary fix for the bottom line.  Layoffs are the next step.

It is impossible for the Government to keep paying out unemployment benefits at the current rates.... State and Local Governments are already struggling financially.  Even teachers are being given the pink slip in record numbers.  And with unemployment remaining at record highs they're going to have a tough time paying out funds to the jobless.... next up is the State and Local government bailout.  That will be a fun one.  Maybe call it the SALER... State and Local Economic Relief.

Read more here.

The latest job report revealed that job losses have slowed, but they are still high relative to historical standards.  This is based off of the ADP National Employment Report, which is an unofficial gauge of the employment picture.  April's numbers were much better than March, but we're still losing half a million jobs per month.  And again, this is an unofficial report... I think I'll start coming out with the Unofficial Richard Savvy Jobs Report and if it's positive I'm sure people would take it into account... 

This "unofficial report" also said that unemployment is likely to rise for the next several months, but at a slower rate... so it's basically going from extremely bad to pretty bad.  Is this a good sign?  Of course it is, but we're not out of the woods yet and this euphoric buying that's going on is not warranted.  There is still too much bad news that has yet to surface. 

Unemployment and weakness in the housing market are the biggest obstacles threatening an economy... and if you don't have a job you can't buy a house... or if you're worried about losing your job you won't buy a house.  I think the majority of America is in this boat... or raft.

The Labor Department will give a report on job losses this Friday... which will give another pseudo positive look at how many jobs have been lost. 

Lately there has been a lot of confidence on Wall Street amidst bad news across many fronts.  Investors have seemed to ignore mixed earnings reports, fears about a possible swine flu pandemic and a bankruptcy filing from one of the country's largest automakers, Chrysler LLC.  This bear market rally has driven the market up more than 25 percent from 12-year lows in early March.  Be warry.  Stress test results are coming out tomorrow and could put us back at square 1... or square negative 1.  Then there's the job report on Friday...

Then Mother's Day on Sunday... go buy your Mom something nice and stimulate this economy... maybe like a house.

Read more here.

Yahoo announced nasty earnings and another round of layoffs today.

This is Yahoo's third round of slimming the job force in the last year.  The layoffs will affect about 5 percent of Yahoo's 13,500 workers and employees will start getting the "pack your belongings and get out of here" notices over the next two weeks.

The last two cuts totaled 2,500 jobs... so that's a total of about 3,200 jobs, or 20 percent of the original work force that started 2008 with Yahoo!  Boo! Hoo!

Yahoo's earnings dropped 78 percent from the same period a year ago as the search engine earned $118 million in the first quarter... if you can't do the math, that means they earned $537 million in the first three months of last year.  More than a $400 million difference!

Facebook, MySpace and Google are making Yahoo an internet dinosaur about to go extinct... but investors applauded the cost saving cuts as the stock gained more than 5 percent today, closing at $14.38.  Yay for Yahoo, but don't even think about hopping on that train.

Read more here.