One week does not a trend make

At work today, when I heard that jobless claims dropped this week by 4000, I figured that someone on the right would link and claim it as a sign of a strong economy, even though the week before the number of jobless claims jumped by 8000 claims.

Anyone can take one week's numbers and suggest a trend. But it's not a good indicator at all. People tend to look at the four week moving average to look for signs of a trend. This week, that average jumped by 1,250 claims.