Jobless Claims Drift Lower; Prices Rise, Trade Gap Cut

Yesterday the Labor Department released new data showing that initial claims for jobless benefits hit a four-month low last week. The trade gap also narrowed, which is providing optimism about the ever-struggling economy. We are all desperate for signs our economy is improving, so we might be jumping the gun. On the other hand, we’ll take any good news we get on the economic front.

CNBC reports

The number of workers filing initial claims for unemployment benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 435,000 in the week to Nov. 6 from a revised 459,000 for the prior week.

The bigger-than-expected dropped was underscored by the four-week moving average of claims which fell to its lowest since just before Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September 2008 in the depths of the financial crisis.

Meanwhile, a separate Commerce Department report showed the U.S. trade deficit narrowed more than expected in September, despite near record imports from China, as a weak U.S. dollar helped American exports grow for the third consecutive month.

A narrower deficit is positive for U.S. economic growth since it suggests more demand is being met by U.S. production.

A third government report showed a jump in petroleum prices in October pushed overall import prices to their highest since April, but the rise was less than analysts expected.

Read more here

Labor Dept. Estimates $7.1 Billion in Overpayments to Unemployed

Although headlines are focusing on the thousands of Americans that are losing, or have lost their unemployment benefits, the U.S. Labor Department is reporting over $7 billion in overpayment to the unemployed. As this story from ABC News explains, the total amount of unemployment benefits paid in 2009 was $76.8 billion, compared to $41.6 billion in 2008.

Fraud accounted for $1.55 billion in estimated overpayments last year, while errors by state agencies were blamed for $2.27 billion, according to the Labor Department. The department's final report will be released next month.

Some of the overpayments likely can be traced back to the overwhelming workloads facing state employment agencies during the recession, said George Wentworth, a policy analyst for the National Employment Law Project.

"You've got a system that's been under siege like the unemployment insurance system has been for the last two years," Wentworth said. "You've got a lot of new staff coming into the system; there's been a lot of federal extensions [to unemployment insurance benefits] that have had to be programmed in and so on. There's just been a lot of change that states have had to handle. ... I just think the volume and the new staff have made the systems more susceptible to error."

Continue reading at ABC News.com…