Will This Good Labor Market News Help Obama?

Americans received a bit of good news Thursday morning when the U.S. Labor Department released new data that showed a sharp decrease in the number of jobless claims filed in the last week. The news may have been sweetest for the nation’s Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama, who could certainly use this positive labor market data to boost his bid for reelection.

The report highlights a drop of 30,000 initial claims for state unemployment benefits, bringing the seasonally adjusted total to 339,000. Obama has not seen new claims numbers so low since he has been in office, these being the lowest since February 2008.

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While analysts warn against putting too much faith into the numbers – which can sometimes be distorted or adjusted later – they should still be viewed as harbingers of good things to come.

“This is a positive signal for the economy. The overall trend seems to be that the labor market is improving,” said RBS Securities strategist Brian Kim.

Further evidence of a recovering job market came last week when the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent, another record-low figure for Obama’s time in the oval office.

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