Few days ago I wrote that unemployment is still the same. It is not the same, it’s getting worse. For the 10th week in a row, the number of people receiving jobless benefits grew. It now stands at nearly 5.6 million, an indication that the labor market is still grim. New claims for unemployment benefits rose again as well, to a seasonally adjusted 652,000, up from 644,000 the week before. More on this story here.

If we don’t see turnaround in unemployment, the economy is not going to go anywhere but down. As we said before, if you have a job consider yourself lucky and do everything possible to keep the job. Unemployment situation gives us the warning that we should not get carried away with the recent rally in the stock market. We are not out of the woods yet.