Mark Thoma:

Economist's View: Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims increase to 424,000: New claims for unemployment insurance went back up last week, and historically claims at this level indicate job loss. Every time claims go up we hear about holidays falling at unusual times, seasonal adjustment problems, weather related problems -- there seems to be no shortage of reasons to dismiss weakness in labor markets. So I'll be interested to see what excuse policymakers come up with this time to ignore the unemployment crisis.