The Ugly Truth About Jobless Claims

If you sense that something dark is going on with the US economy; but, you can't quite put your finger on it, you're not alone. Despite what you're being told by most popular news sources, US jobless claims are rising at an alarming rate.

Fortunately, Bloomberg just shined a journalistic light on the situation. According to Bloomberg, the number of Americans filing for jobless benefits rose last week from 212k to 221k. California, Pennsylvania, and Iowa saw the largest increase in claims. Texas, Missouri, and Georgia saw the largest decline.

Here's the rub. Data sources such as the Challenger US Job Cut Announcements and WARNs (Worker Adjustment and Training Notifications) both indicated a significant increase in unemployment claims, while published data from the US Department of Labor suggested that unemployment claims continued chugging along at near record lows. So, where is the disconnect?

Take a look for yourself. According to self-reported data published in 2024, the following companies announced layoffs:

So, this begs the question.... Are you going to believe what the government tells you or are you going to believe your "lying eyes"?

Despite 4 years of quantitative easing (aka dollar-printing) there is waning global demand for US goods. At the same time, real wages must increase to keep pace with rising inflation from quantitative easing. It's not hard to see that the net effect of decreased demand coupled with rising wages will be layoffs.

And... layoffs will continue until a healthy balance between supply and demand has been restored. Of course, this won't happen until the US stops printing dollars and starts producing goods that the world wants to buy at a price the world can afford.