Sluggish labor market could muddy Fed debate-Los Angeles Times

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/06/business/la-fi-jobs-20130907

Unemployment rate fell down to 7.3% last month, but it mostly fell for the wrong reason. More discouraged Americans gave up looking for work as the percentage of the population in the labor force dropped for the third consecutive month. Having Americans give up looking for work is not going to help the economy, but there is not much that can be done to be encourage these Americans to keep looking for work because even with the improving labor market, it is not improving nearly as fast as we need it too, but then again when does anything improve as fast as we need it.

"The economy is still healing. It's just not nearly as rapid a growth as we'd like to see," said economist Daniel Seiver, a finance professor at San Diego State.

Economists are now digging into the data quickly, but they have found uncomforting signs that could give Fed policymakers pause on deciding whether it's time to reduce their bond-buying stimulus program.

U.S. Posts Lowest Jobless Claims Since 2007-usnews.com

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/08/15/us-posts-lowest-jobless-claims-since-2007

Unemployment claims are at their lowest.

Last week 320,000 Americans filed for new unemployment insurance claims; the lowest count since late 2007, and 15,000 fewer than the previous week. There is no doubt that the trend of unemployment claims are going down overall, but there are still states that are seeing an increase, California had the greatest increase. Because of the drop in the claims, Joel Naroff, president and chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors, an economic consulting firm, believes the next jobs report could be an improvement over recent months.

Overall this is good news that the total unemployment claims went down, but with the claims raising in some states this isn't going to be a huge beneficial impact on the economy.