Ah, but that’s the question:  more or less? There were two articles this morning about the labor market.

One headline states that Jobless Claims Rise to 365,000.  The four-week moving average of new claims, a less volatile indicator, rose to 362,500 last week.  (NY Times)

Another says that Businesses Add 57,000 New Jobs in Nov., although that was lower than the 150,000 that had been predicted.  (ABC News)

Does that mean a net loss of 308,000 jobs?  Or does it mean that although there were 365k new people unemployed, that 422k unemployed people got jobs, giving a net gain of 57k jobs?  I had been thinking it was the former, but because the unemployment rate went down it looks more like the later.

Is this good news?  Are there more jobs or fewer?  And finally, why aren’t these numbers ever in the same article?