Giant Whining Sound

We can add 444,000 more to the ranks of the "economically illiterate whiners":

The Labor Department reported that new applications for unemployment insurance rose to a seasonally adjusted 444,000, up 15,000 from the previous week. Economists had expected claims to drop to 420,000.

We'll see what tommorow morning's jobs report has in store. The ADP report showed a decline in private sector jobs of 33,000 --but ADP's numbers have been showing much less job loss than the BLS payroll numbers in recent months.