March 30, 2012
Yes, that it is the way that the media reported the Labor Department’s release of new unemployment claims yesterday. Strictly speaking, this is true. The 359,000 claims reported for last week is the lowest number in almost four years.
However, it is worth pointing out that last week’s number was originally reported as 348,000. It was revised up this week to 364,000. There has been a very consistent trend with claims numbers be revised upward over the last couple of years. (I don’t think this is a deliberately rigging; it just suggests a bias in the methodology.) This upward revision makes the “lowest in four years” line somewhat less meaningful.
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