Many economists will end up eating humble pie this weekend because, while the relationship between the weekly initial unemployment claims and non-farm payrolls is fairly robust, we should also realize that it is not always a stable relationship from month to month.

These claims numbers confirm the notion that things may improve sometime in the future. The fact that we didn't go over 400,000 was very encouraging.

We can't ignore the trend -- jobless claims have been coming down. We're at least close to turning the corner on the labor market front.

These jobless claims figures strongly suggest that any discussion of a runaway economic recovery have been greatly exaggerated, ... Instead, what we see here is a recovery that continues to face significant headwinds emanating from the employment front.

Continuing claims numbers are very closely tied to unemployment, and they are skyrocketing.