United States Unemployment Claims Hit 258,000

Analysts point to Hurricane Helene and Boeing strike for increase in unemployment numbers.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits in the week of October 10, 2024 increased to its highest level in a year. 

Pundits argue that this surge in the unemployment claims is more likely the product of Hurricane Helene and the Boeing machinist strike.

The Labor Department reported on October 10 that applications for unemployment claims surged by 33,000 to 258,000 for the week of October 3. That figure is the most since August 5, 2023 and considerably higher than the 229,000 analysts were expecting.

Analysts called attention to big spikes in unemployment benefit applications last week across states that were most impacted by Hurricane Helene, which includes Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

 “Claims will likely continue to be elevated in states affected by Helene and Hurricane Milton as well as the Boeing strike until it is resolved,” observed economist Nancy Vanden Houten. “We think, though, that the Fed will view these impacts as temporary and still expect it to lower rates by (25 basis points) at the November meeting.”

Vanden Houten claims that Washington state was the most impacted by the Boeing strike and was overwhelmingly responsible for the increase. The four-week average of claims increased by 6,750 to 231,000.

The total number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits grew by 42,000 to roughly 1.86 million for the week of September 28, the most since the end of July.

The US economy is structurally stagnant. To be sure, like Hurricane Helene and the Boeing strike are increasing unemployment and creating general economic precarity.

However, the easy money system and massive regulatory state in the background will always make the US economy a rigged game that’s in favor of oligarchic elites, and those close to the printing press while working class Americans are constantly getting their wealth chiseled by inflation and higher prices for basic goods and services.

Until the regulatory state is put on a diet, and the US moves towards the system of competing currencies, American standards of living will continue to decline.