There’s a positive headline, but the data is summarized by the first sentence. AP via Yahoo Finance reports New jobless claims unexpectedly drop to 631K:

The number of newly laid-off workers signing up for unemployment benefits dropped unexpectedly last week, but the number of people continuing to draw jobless aid rose to nearly 6.3 million, setting a record high for the 13th straight week.

Meanwhile, consumer spending fell more than expected in March while personal savings rose, fresh evidence that the economy is still struggling to emerge from the recession.

The Labor Department said Thursday that new applications for unemployment aid fell to a seasonally adjusted 631,000 last week. That was down from the prior week’s 645,000, which was revised slightly higher from the government’s initial estimate.

It’s hard to see the good news in decreased new claims when continuing claims are constantly increasing. The unadjusted data is slightly better. From the actual report:

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 576,605 in the week ending April 25, a decrease of 19,959 from the previous week. There were 337,858 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.7 percent during the week ending April 18, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 6,277,186, a decrease of 130,405 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.2 percent and the volume was 2,987,428.

That’s a significant adjustment.

The good/bad lists exhibit their typical volatility:

The good list (-1000 or more): PA, FL, IL, OH, WA, MD, TX, WI, AR, IN, NJ, MO, KS, AZ

The bad list (+1000 or more): RI, OR, LA, SC, NC, GA, CT, NY, CA

CA (the worst) was +8,535 vs PA (the best) at -7,799.

California is screwed.