Jobless Claims Rose Last Week, Cries the WSJ

Of course, that’s merely making headlines. Just three paragraphs in you get quite a different store:

“In short, claims remain low, consistent with the trend in employment growth remaining more than strong enough to keep the unemployment rate trending down,” Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said in a note to clients.

In other words, they’re trying to get clicks, not report the news.

In any event, unemployment is voluntary. There are thousands of available jobs in every market, but a person chooses to either work for less than they’re used to working, stop working, or to suckle at the teat of government. It’s all trade offs. When the teat pays more, you get more suckers. Removing the teat has the double benefit of restoring stolen funds to tax victims and increasing the incentive to take a pay cut or to try a new career. A win for everyone but the indolent, methinks.