Chapter 5 - Economic Indicators

"U.S. Jobless Claims Up", Globe and Mail - March 2, 2006

The U.S. Labour Department observed that there was an increase in the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits in the past week. The number of filings have increased by 15,000 since the previous week, coming to a total of 294,000 Americans currently filing for jobless benefits. Even though the number of filings have increased, a healthy labour market is still being indicated. Government analysts say that this increase is due to problems adjusting the data for seasonal variations in February of weather and holidays. Despite this recent increase, the number of new benefit applications has been under 300,000 for the past seven weeks. In the past January, the unemployment rate dropped to a 4 1/2 year low of 4.7%, as businesses added 193,000 new jobs. This is considered fairly good, as it shows (along with other economic statistics) the U.S. economy rebounding strongly from its disasters caused by hurricanes and also, their high energy prices.

Relation to Chapter 5 - unemployment

The recent unemployment rate in the United States of 4.7%, compared to Canada's unemployment rate of 6.6%, indicates that the U.S. economy is doing well. There are many types of unemployment – one of them being the natural rate of unemployment. Businesses had helped to decrease U.S.'s natural rate of unemployment, as they created many new job openings. The higher levels of unemployment insurance filings can be blamed on the U.S. economy currently still rebounding from their recent catastrophes, specifically Hurricane Katrina. However, even amongst this time of regrowth, Americans could possible be taking advantage of the unemployment insurances and therefore, producing a higher unemployment rate falling under the category of insurance-induced unemployment.