It’s Thursday and due to a short week with the holiday we’ve almost made it to another weekend!  Today I take a look at some of the numbers – unemployment claims, underemployment numbers, White House Twitter Town Hall numbers, Twitter followers, and polls – that caught my attention in recent days.  It’s some interesting reading for almost everyone on what promises to be a hot summer day!

Please read on…

418,000

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that for “the week ending July 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 418,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 432,000. The 4-week moving average was 424,750, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 427,750.”

Veterans’ unemployment rates are even higher – jobs are looking like one of top campaign issues for the 2012 election season.

18.3% Underemployment

“Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment at 8.7% in June” and “Underemployment is at 18.3% — an improvement from May but the same as in June 2010.”  Read about it HERE.

2099 Characters

I thought President Obama’s Twitter Town Hall meeting was great and it made Twitter and even more important campaign tool for election 2012.  We also found that it is easier to ask questions in 140 characters than it is to answer them.  The New York Times reports that “On average, Mr. Obama took 2,099 characters to answer his questions, the equivalent of about 15 Twitter messages.”

9,014,995 Followers

That is the number of “followers” President Obama has on Twitter (as of this morning).   He still trails Lady Gaga who has 11,460,596 and Justin Bieber with 10,850,763.

93 Questions

A “Youth Risk Behavior Survey polled 4,148 high-school students in 46 randomly selected Montana high schools in February.  It’s compiled from a 93-item questionnaire developed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

You can read about the report HERE.

51% to 34%

If (and that’s a big “IF” at this time) Brian Schweitzer takes on Max Baucus in a 2014 Senate democratic primary, Schweitzer wins 51-34% according to a new poll by Public Policy Polling.  You can read it HERE.

Although @TheWesternWord has significantly fewer followers than President Obama, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber, it still makes good sense to follow me on Twitter for Independent Commentary about Politics, Sports, the Media, and Current Events!