“The unadjusted figures for last week actually showed that new claims rose by 86,389 last week, which would push the total to 667,534.

Those adjustment difficulties also were behind a big drop reported for people continuing to draw unemployment benefits, the analyst said.

The number of people still collecting benefits fell by a seasonally adjusted 642,000 to 6.27 million, the lowest level since mid-April.

The unadjusted figures for continued claims showed an increase of 63,714.”

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jul/16/us-economy-071609/?business&zIndex=133023

please keep in mind that the continuing claims numbers exclude all the people on the ‘special’ unemplpoyment roles. I havent seen the numbers for this week, but a short while ago we had drops in the reported roles that were mostly just people shifting to the unreported ‘special’ group. That isnt exactly the good thing they are trying to convey in the press.

Increadably the UT had a better breakdown than the national media, who I occaisionally believe is outsorcing due to layoffs to the journalism programs at local middle schools.