We’re starting the day with a blah-kind of unemployment report. Last week claims for unemployment were down, but just a bit, by about 3,000.

This data doesn’t lead experts to believe there should be much optimism in the job market. “Although the weekly data is extremely volatile,” says Diane Swonk, chief economist with Mesirow Financial, “the trend has been sort of treading water — and treading water in a place that’s not very good for the unemployment rate.”

This news also helps validate the Federal Reserve’s recent decision to start a third round of quantitative easing to help improve the unemployment picture here in the U.S.