According to the Bureau of Labor Statistic, for the second week in a row, over 400,000 new jobless claims were filed across the country. Last week the number was 451k, this week it’s 410k, and as we saw last week, most of the blame is falling on Hurricane Sandy.
Last week the Hurricane Sandy excuse made little sense as most of the new jobless claims came from Ohio and Pennsylvania due to layoffs in the manufacturing, construction, and auto industries. Had these layoffs been due to the hurricane, why weren’t there more layoffs in those same states and industries this week? Furthermore, these states weren’t hit anywhere near as hard as the two states that saw the biggest increase in jobless claims this week: New Jersey and New York.
Coming in third was California, which saw an increase of nearly 25k new claims due to layoffs in the service industry due to Hurricane Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown.
Overall, forty states saw an increase in claims.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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