The report on weekly jobless claims is now out from the Labor Department, and the number of claims gained 2,000 to total 366,000. Bloomberg and Dow Jones were both looking for 365,000 for the week. The figure from last week was revised to 364,000 from 361,000.

Another measurement of the army of unemployed is the figure for continuing claims of more than one-week (with a one-week lag). That figure came down to 3.3 million.

The good news is that these claims are lower than the 400,000 figures seen earlier, but the bad news is that they are still too high to really make a dent in the unemployment rate.

JON C. OGG