THIS WILL NOT HELP OBAMA'S APPROVAL – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  The new weekly jobless claims figures are out, and they follow a familiar, depressing pattern:

More Americans than forecast filed claims for unemployment benefits last week, reflecting the volatility of applications during the annual auto-plant retooling period.

Applications for jobless benefits increased 10,,000 in the week ended July 16 to 418,000, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 410,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. The data included about 1,750 additional job cuts due to the Minnesota government shutdown, the agency said.

Employers have been reluctant to hire more workers over the past two months on concern the recovery was slowing and growing unease over stalled negotiations to extend the federal debt ceiling and reduce the budget deficit. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke last week said recent data showed “continuing weakness” in the labor market.

Any number above 400,000 is considered grim. 

Job gains have slowed in the past two months, raising concern about the durability of a labor market recovery. Payrolls expanded by 18,000 workers last month, the smallest gain since September, after increasing by 25,000 in May, Labor Department data showed July 8. The jobless rate climbed to 9.2 percent, the highest this year.
Banks and manufacturers are among companies still cutting jobs.

COMMENT:  What will Obama say?  Will he blame it on BUSH (!!)?  CHENEY (!!!!)?  This is the worst economic climate that we've seen in the lifetime of many of us.  There does not appear to be any reason to expect good news in the near future.  And it's perfectly obvious from a variety of news reports that the business community has lost faith in the Obama administration.  We also face a rise, not a decline, in foreign threats.

We've sure had change we can believe in.

July 21, 2011