In April, the median dropped below six weeks because the number of newly unemployed increased. If that number stays around six weeks, that means people are getting reemployed fairly quickly and is indicative of the resilience of the U.S. economy. Also indicative of the economy's strength, said Bird, is the fact that only one percent of the workforce has been unemployed for 15 weeks or more. That's just a tenth of a percent higher than a year ago, when things were hot. The real story of the economy is not mass layoff announcements.
Mass layoffs are just one piece of the economic puzzle and a small one at that.
Layoffs are serious, but not a cause for hysteria when viewed from the perspective of the continuing strength of the U.S. economy. On Friday, June 1st, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the latest data from its Monthly Economic Situation Report. Even if those numbers are up a decimal point of two, that won't be very significant because so far, those indicators aren't looking too bad. According to Bird, it's still possible to avoid a full-blown recession this year.