MORE ECONOMIC DISTRESS – AT 9:29 A.M. ET:  Coming after the home-foreclosure report, our second post up today, the new jobs report can only add to apprehension that the economic recovery is sluggish at best, an illusion at worst.  From Bloomberg:

The number of first-time claims for unemployment insurance payments jumped in the first week of 2011 to the highest level since October as more Americans lined up to file following the holidays.

Initial jobless claims rose by 35,000 to 445,000, according to Labor Department data released today. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for 410,000 filings. The average number of applications over the past four weeks, a less-volatile gauge, increased to 416,500.

Today’s figures follow a report last week showing the U.S. added fewer jobs than forecast in December, underscoring the concern of Federal Reserve policy makers about the labor market. Economic growth may need to accelerate further and encourage companies to ramp up the hiring necessary to reduce the unemployment rate.

“Firms won’t go out and hire a lot of people until they’re confident that demand is increasing,” Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida, said before the report. “Demand is improving but it isn’t enough.”

COMMENT:  An economy is based partly on psychological perception, and the indicators of the last week will not improve that perception. 

Let's see how the mainstream media spins this.  As we've seen this week, it's already in 2012 mode, protecting President Obama, and it will be a formidable force in his corner, as it was in 2008.

January 13, 2011