Thurday brought three important economic reports: new unemployment claims hit a 5 week high; first quarter GDP growth was revised down to 1.9% and the ADP jobs report came in a bit below the consensus. None of these three reports is that important as an indicator of where the economy is going. The move back up in weekly unemployment claims was not that large. The GDP number was actually at the consensus figure -- very slow growth, but growth nevertheless. The ADP report is notoriously unreliable for predicting the unemployment rate or even the number of jobs found by the government. Taken together, however, these reports indicate that things are not improving. The economy continues to limp along, growing slightly. The only way that the number of unemployed will be reduced with figures like these is for more folks to just give up looking for work.
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