Verizon Strike Blamed For Jump In Jobless Claims?

This morning, the jobless claims number for the week rose to 417,000. This was substantially higher than the consensus projection of only 400,000.

Now, if you read all the "media" reports with regard to this "unexpected" jump, you would get the impression that it was "all" due to striking Verizon workers filing for unemployment; even though those workers are ineligible for any unemployment benefits (Click here to See the CNN Story: Verizon workers filed thousands of unemployment claims). Similarly, CNBC's headline for the job's story stated: "Weekly Claims Above Key Mark Thanks to Verizon Strike". Then, USA Today captioned their version of the story: "Verizon strikers inflate weekly unemployment numbers".

The Verizon story is a clear deception being floated by the Obama Administration and all too happily carried forth by the mainstream media. Even if you back out the supposed 8,500 striking workers who erroneously filed for jobless benefits, the adjusted number would still be 8,500 claims higher than the consensus estimate of 400,000; and, that's the story that the "Verizon headlines" are intentionally trying to hide. Once again, the mainstream media comes to the aid of Obama. They know that many Americans are simply headline readers and not interested in digging down into the weeds to figure out what's really going on.