WASHINGTON (Reuters)- The number of Americans filing an initial claim for jobless aid fell last week to its lowest level in eight months, the government said on Thursday in a report that offered a hopeful sign layoffs were easing.
These preliminary statistics however might represent nothing more than a “dead cat bounce,” a term market watchers employ when they are cynical about minor upswings in statistics after significant downswings, “because even a cat will bounce a little if dropped off a building.”
Total seasonally adjusted employment peaked in February of 2001, hit its lowest point in August of 2003 and improved insignificantly in this “preliminary” September report (the dead cat bounce), leaving us at about the same level as September of 1999. Private employment also peaked in February of 2001; its lowest point since occurred in August with only minor improvement in the September report, leaving us at the same level as May of 1999. The average hours worked peaked in late 1997--early 1998 and hit its lowest point since in July 2003 and we are currently at the lowest level in the last ten years (which was all the data I had access to).
