If only the registrar of voters could hire as well

The number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits rose last week, a sign that jobs remain scarce even as the economy recovers.

The increase also may result from the difficulty the Labor Department has in seasonally adjusting the claims around the Easter holiday, which falls on different weeks each year.

Or simply because of the fact that the current economic policies in place aren't working.

"This is ... a volatile time when the numbers move around quite a bit," a department analyst said.

The Labor Department said Thursday that first-time claims increased by 18,000 in the week ended April 3, to a seasonally adjusted 460,000. That's worse than economists' estimates of a drop to 435,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

California also closed its state offices for a holiday on March 31, which likely held down the claims figures. On an unadjusted basis, claims rose by 6,500 to nearly 415,000.

(sigh)

We were promised unemployment wasn't going to go above 8% if we passed the $787 billion Porkulus bill. With unemployment at 9.7%, how's that working? And these numbers will start looking really good when the 1.2 million census workers that were hired are back out on the streets again in a few months and just in time for the November elections.

When is it time? When is it time to finally stick a fork in Keynesian economics?