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This is like one of those “good news, bad news” jokes.
First, the good news.
Initial jobless claims fell to 234K as of the week of February 4th, beating expectations of 249K.
This is near the lowest level since 1973.
Now for the bad news.
As of Q4 2016, average weekly hours YoY fell by the most since 2008 during The Great Recession.
So, a near record initial jobless claims report, but lower HOURS worked.
Its as if the US economy has morphed into an Andy Dwyer economy — all low paying part-time jobs.
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We should also consider that the US population increases by one million people per year due to live births minus deaths and immigration. A more realistic evaluation would be hours worked per capita.