Are automaker woes skewing unemployment figures?

For the first time all year, the number of new initial claims for unemployment benefits fell under the 600,000 mark, dropping by a substantial 52,000 from last week's revised number of 617,000. The four week moving average also fell by 10,000, providing further, and seemingly definitive, evidence, that we are past the peak in new jobless claims reached some 13 weeks ago.

The total number of… » Full Story on Salon.com