There's some speculation that the jobless claims number is acceptable since the number of claims fell this week by 10,000.  I'm here to say it's not good.  Anything over 400,000 is bad, it's particularly bad when the moving average is well over 400K.  The standard moving average to smooth out the jobs number is 4 weeks.  Apparently this is a volatile number, but I don't think it's that bad.  This feels like a repeat of 2001-2002 and the numbers are much the same.  The only thing different are the players.  The 01-02 jobless claims hit the tech sector the worst.  I am in the tech sector and I can tell you that everyone that I knew from friends to ex-coworkers were on the chopping block.  So everyone lost their jobs, but the good news is, every one pretty much stayed employed throughout.  They either took pay cuts or had to accept short term contracts to make ends meet.  I didn't actually lose my job at the time, but my employer quit paying me.   So I had to move along.  The employer eventually made good, but he was in an expansion phase and the capital he supposedly secured to do it with dried up on him.

So fast forward to today where we have a repeat in the trend and about the same numbers.  The situation is not good, only this time it's not good for the financial, homebuilders and construction businesses.  Everyone I know (which isn't a lot) associated with these sectors has had a job change, pay or work reduction or at the minimum some tense times.  The good news for them is that I'm breaking out my crystal ball and I can see that people will need money and homes in the future.  These sectors will make a fashionable come back, I'm sure of it.

If you're currently employed in the hardest hit sectors and have lost or are in fear of losing your job, I'm telling you to hang in there.  It'll work itself out and just about everyone I knew in the tech sector who lost their jobs is actually better off today than they were ... some very substantially.