Unemployment insurance claims decline further in October

Consumers who are dealing with debt counseling as a result of the economic downturn received more good news implying that recession may finally be a thing of the past, as initial unemployment claims continued to decline during October.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report, initial unemployment claims decreased to 512,000 during the week ending October 31, 20,000 fewer than the initial claims recorded one week earlier.

Additionally, the report found that while the insured unemployment rate remained steady at 4.4 percent during the week ending October 24 compared to the week prior, the number of people using unemployment insurance had decreased to 5.74 million, 68,000 fewer than the week prior.

The general decrease in unemployment figures comes one week after the U.S Department of Commerce revealed that the nation’s gross domestic product had expanded by 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2009.

Juan Morales, the managing partner of Stanton Chase International’s Miami office, said that while it was "impossible" to confirm a correlation between the GDP and job growth because of the recent recession, the two had been connected in the past.

"As you know, this is one of the worst recessions our country has ever seen," he said. "However, if you look back at other recessions, and if you look at how other countries have done, job growth usually occurs about six months after some GDP growth."