The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits increased in the last full week of September, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report released this week.
The number of people filing for claims rose 1,000 to 308,000. However, that number remains at a pre-recession level, which is a good sign that the economic recovery is continuing, according to Reuters.
The four week average of jobless claims, which lessens the impact of weekly jumps and dips, actually fell by 3,750 to 305,000. That’s the lowest number of weekly jobless claims since May 2007.
The numbers are all anyone has to go on at the moment. The federal government shutdown means that the monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is not expected to be released on Friday as scheduled.
For current and potential college students, the news may be good, according to many different media outlets. Many experts point to the fact that jobless claim numbers have fallen throughout 2013, leading some to conclude that the cycle of layoffs across many industries over the past six years has come to an end.
The larger number of people who are employed leads to higher consumer spending, which is an important primer for the overall economy. Consumer spending accounts for about 70% of the economy.
Still, the pace of hiring has not increased as much as hoped, and many economists say the new claims data will not provide a clear picture on the pace of hiring, according to Reuters.
Companies are lean and mean, but the hiring that usually goes along with claims like these just isn’t happening,” Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at Maria Fiorini Ramirez in New York City, told Bloomberg.
The numbers also do not reflect the current government shutdown, which has led to about 800,000 federal workers being furloughed and layoffs among government contractors. Those numbers will be reflected in the Oct. 10 jobless claim report.
The government furloughs and subsequent private sector layoffs will likely be dismissed as a blip on the overall economic screen by policy makers, according to Patrick O’Keefe, a former Labor Department official who now is director of economic research at accounting firm CohnRezmick.
“They’d likely see this as a temporary layoff and not indicative of a broader trend,” O’Keefe told The Wall Street Journal. “The expectation is nearly all these employees will return to work. It’s much different than a mass layoff in another industry.”
The coming holiday season also will affect employment numbers. Wal-Mart already has announced plans to hire 55,000 employees for the holiday season, 10% more than the number hired in 2012, according to Bloomberg. Wal-Mart also plans to move 35,000 from part-time to full-time status.
Macy’s, which is the largest department store chain in the United States, has announced plans to hire 83,000 people for the holidays. Kohl’s will hire about 53,000, according to Bloomberg.
