Highest Jobless Claims Ever - New Record

We have a new record on jobless claims:

New claims for unemployment benefits last week rose to a seasonally adjusted 652,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 644,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The total number of people claiming benefits jumped to 5.56 million, worse than economists' projections of 5.48 million, a ninth straight record and the highest total on records dating back to 1967.

and.....they had to revise last months 6.2% drop in GDP to 6.3%:

The dismal job news is one indicator of the overall economic pain Americans have endured early in the new year. The Commerce Department said Thursday that the economy shrank at a 6.3 percent annual pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, and a bit faster than the 6.2 percent drop estimated a month ago

So this implies we have worst unemployment numbers since they started taking records and bear in mind, the calculation for the unemployed has changed since the 1930's.

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