--- title: If You're Looking for Work, the Outlook is Brightening description: While the number of Americans in the labor pool is still at worrisome lows, the outlook for those who are employed or are still looking is improving authors: - name: Paul J. Lim url: https://money.com/author/paul-j-lim-3/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 104 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Housing - Identity Theft - Investing - Retirement - Taxes social: - https://x.com/pauljlim former_staff: true published: '2014-08-28T16:08:09.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T04:17:12.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - inflation - Jobs - labor market - The Economy - Unemployment Claims - Wages word_count: 293 canonical: https://money.com/jobless-claims-falling-employment-improving/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![open plan office](https://img.money.com/2014/08/140828_inv_employbrighten1.jpg) While there's great debate about why so many [Americans have dropped out of the workforce](https://money.com/jobs-employment-yellen/), there is new hope for those who have stuck it out in the labor pool. The [government reported on Thursday](http://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf) that the number of workers filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits dropped to 298,000 in the week ended Aug. 23, another sign that the job market is stabilizing. This marked the second straight week of declines in initial claims. More importantly, the four-week average claims figure itself is now just below the 300,000 mark β€” at 299,750 β€” putting the job market back where it was before the global financial crisis began in 2007. ![US Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance Chart](http://media.ycharts.com/charts/0f79c0030681ffdbb631c0a11406b0ed.png) [US Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance](http://ycharts.com/indicators/initial_claims_for_unemployment_insurance) data by [YCharts](http://ycharts.com) To be sure, pessimists (and market bears) will point out that the overall unemployment rate, which stands at 6.2%, still has a ways to go before improving to pre-crisis levels: ![US Unemployment Rate Chart](http://media.ycharts.com/charts/0e3eb99b2e857dbe4501d36887547e45.png) [US Unemployment Rate](http://ycharts.com/indicators/unemployment_rate) data by [YCharts](http://ycharts.com) And as economist Ed Yardeni, head of Yardeni Research, points out, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and other policy makers don't look at just this one measure of the job market. In fact, she looks at 19. "Among her favorite labor market indicators is wage inflation," he said, "which remains too low, in her opinion." *Money*'s Pat Regnier has more about that here. ![US Real Average Hourly Earnings Chart](http://media.ycharts.com/charts/1aacdb6880167a5889dac9341537dea6.png) [US Real Average Hourly Earnings](http://ycharts.com/indicators/us_real_average_hourly_earnings) data by [YCharts](http://ycharts.com) But Yardeni points out that wages and salaries on a per-payroll employee basis β€” in other words, measuring folks who have a job β€”are nonetheless up 8% over the past 10 years. So it just goes to reinforce the divide: If you're employed or in the work force, things are probably looking up. If you've dropped out, on the other hand, the picture may not be so bright. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/jobless-claims-falling-employment-improving/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Economy", "item": "https://money.com/economy/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "If You're Looking for Work, the Outlook is Brightening" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/jobless-claims-falling-employment-improving/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/jobless-claims-falling-employment-improving/", "name": "If You're Looking for Work, the Outlook is Brightening", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2014-08-28T16:08:09.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/jobless-claims-falling-employment-improving/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/jobless-claims-falling-employment-improving/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T04:17:12.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "If You're Looking for Work, the Outlook is Brightening", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/08/140828_inv_employbrighten1.jpg", "width": 2716, "height": 1810, "caption": "140828_INV_EmployBrighten" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://media.ycharts.com/charts/0f79c0030681ffdbb631c0a11406b0ed.png", "width": "", "height": "" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://media.ycharts.com/charts/0e3eb99b2e857dbe4501d36887547e45.png", "width": "", "height": "" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://media.ycharts.com/charts/1aacdb6880167a5889dac9341537dea6.png", "width": "", "height": "" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Paul J. 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