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Thanks Elon!
The good news is, initial jobless claims in the US receded from a two-month high in the week to March 1, Thursday's update showed.
The not-so-good news is, initial claims for federal workers rose sharply to the highest in more than four years late last month. Relatedly, announced job cuts in February soared to 172,017, the most for any February since the financial crisis, and the highest since July of 2020.
Those latter stats come from Thursday's Challenger release, which captured the "impact"
This is just the beginning. Wall Street strategists are myopic to say the least. A better word would be selfish and heartless. And as a group, not very smart. Ben Franklin said it best, a fool know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
I am under the impression that unemployment claims by former federal employees are usually not included in state unemployment claims data or in the “headline” claims number.
” Claims filed by former federal workers are generally not included in the advanced initial claims count. A UCFE claim would only be included in the headline figure when it is a “joint” claim, where the claimant’s eligibility is based on both Federal and other regular covered wage earnings from a different job. ”
https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ucfe/UnemploymentCompensation_FederalEmployees_WeeklyClaims_FactSheet.pdf
Claims by federal employees is reported separately, on a one-week lag. This seems to be moving up. Note there is usually a delay from firing until the former employee figures out how and where to file a claim and doing so.
” Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,634 in the week ending February 22, an increase of 1,020 from the prior week. There were 312 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 41 from the preceding week. There were 7,412 continued weeks claimed filed by former Federal civilian employees the week ending February 15, a decrease of 200 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 4,306, a decrease of 3 from the prior week. ”
https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf
I believe they are included. However, the survey week ended Feb 14th so most of the effects of federal employee layoffs won’t show in this report. The March report out in April will better reflect this.
The ramifications go far beyond just the people losing their jobs. My wife works with the VA and morale has completely collapsed in the organization. “See you tomorrow” at the end of a workday has turned into “See you tomorrow, maybe.” or “See you tomorrow, hopefully.”. With the leaked memo of 80,000 more firings coming everyone is expecting a dramatic drop in the level of care. Veterans just keep taking the hits, especially as 1/3 of the Federal workforce are veterans and an even higher percentage at the VA.
Priceless as usual.
If I got my news primarily from X and Fox, rather than also reading NYT and so on, and lived in America so what do I care about foreign policy, I think I too would be inclined to believe this is the greatest administration ever. The disconnect is huge. If that is your problem then things seem bad. Meanwhile if you’re totally isolated from the economic consequences of it – and not terribly concerned about society on general – then why not sacrifice some prosperity to win the culture war? For example, could be taking a 5% extra tax wouldn’t change one’s quality of life at all, but never having to deal with pronouns would. Just some ideas that one gets looking from outside in, trying to get it.
Trump approval rating still high in reddest areas. Low-information, low-empathy people need direct personal pain to pay attention. As many are also low-income, they will get it. I think some will figure out the cause, others will still be blaming Bidenomics in 2026.
JL – Trump himself has pointed to another culprit as well:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-blames-globalists-for-stock-market-sell-off/ar-AA1ApoHH?ocid=winp2fptaskbarmouseenter&cvid=9fc7ba49a9464e32bf5b62cff2d60e36&ei=64
Dear media,
STOP calling DOGE a department. It is NOT a department. What it is, is a bunch of snot-nosed, pock-faced Orcs headed up by a racist billionaire to wreak havoc on America and stuff his bottomless pockets. Start doing better.
-Thanks