Friday, October 2, 2009

More On the Unemployment Numbers

Let's take a deeper look into the data to see what's there. Click for a larger image.


The number of people unemployed less than 5 weeks is still decreasing.


The number of people unemployed for 5-14 weeks decreased a bit but is still high. My guess here is that we'll see this number in the above range as people who are unemployed for less than 5 weeks don't find work.


The number unemployed 15 weeks and longer edged up.


The median weeks on unemployment increased but is still below the high of the cycle.

What I find interesting is the short end of the unemployment cycle -- people unemployed for less than 5 weeks -- continues to drop and has been dropping since the beginning of the year.