Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:
For the benefit week ending on April 28, 2012, some 9,979 North Carolinians filed initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits and 98,099 individuals applied for state-funded continuing benefits. Compared to the prior week, there were fewer initial and fewer continuing claims. These figures come from data released by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Averaging new and continuing claims over a four-week period — a process that helps adjust for seasonal fluctuations and better illustrates trends — shows that an average of 10,667 initial claims were filed over the previous four weeks, along with an average of 101,717 continuing claims. Compared to the previous four-week period, the average number of initial claims was lower, and the average number of continuing claims was lower.
One year ago, the four-week average for initial claims stood at 11,698, and the four-week average of continuing claims equaled 111,557.
In recent weeks covered employment has increased and now exceeds the level recorded a year ago (3.76 million versus 3.71 million). Nevertheless, there are still fewer covered workers than there were in January 2008, which means that payrolls are smaller today than they were over four years ago.
The graph shows the changes in unemployment insurance claims measured as a share of covered employment in North Carolina since the recession’s start in December 2007. 
Both new and continuing claims appear to have peaked for this cycle, and the four-week averages of new and continuing claims have fallen considerably. Yet continuing claims remain at an elevated level, which suggests that unemployed individuals are finding it difficult to find new positions.
Mike Konczal of Rortybomb points out that the nation’s high, overall unemployment rate is at the same as the unemployment rate among African-American workers prior to the recession. Writes Konczal:
One interesting thing to note is that the number in between 8.7 percent and 8.5 percent, a threshold the country just crossed, was the average unemployment rate for African Americans going into the recession. The rate from 2006-2007 for African American men and women over 16 was 8.6 percent….
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Total African American unemployment is currently at 15.8 percent and has been hovering around 16 percent for three years now. All the other major employment health indicators are down as well. For instance, the employment-to-population ratio is down to 51 percent from 60 percent in 2001. Nearly half of all African Americans aren’t working.
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The economy is terrible for all Americans right now and we desperately need action to both expand the economy and repeal attempts to contract it. But it is worth remembering that the unemployment misery all Americans are experiencing right now is equal to what it was like during the best two years of the 21st century for African Americans.
Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:
(Via Naked Capitalism) … Michael Hudson of the University of Missouri-Kansas City explains what the United States can learn from the Eurocrisis.
An economic snapshot prepared by the Economic Policy Institute graphs changes in effective federal tax rates by income group between 1995 and 2007. No surprise, but the richest households have fared the best.
