Today's Unemployment Report: Both Good and Bad News

(MoneyWatch)  I'm between classes, but just a quick note on the new unemployment insurance claims figures that came out today:

In the week ending Nov. 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 502,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 514,000. The 4-week moving average was 519,750, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 524,250.

This is good news in one sense since unemployment claims are falling, but discouraging news in another, since with 502,000 new claims, we are still losing jobs overall. The breakeven point, i.e. the point where we are neither losing nor gaining jobs, is closer to 400,000. If the rate of decline of 10,000 to 20,000 jobs per week that we have seen in recent weeks continues, it will be quite some time before we stop losing jobs, let alone make up for the jobs that have already been lost.