We’ve gotten used falling jobless claims every week, however this week is the exception, as they went back up to over 1.1 million:
CNBC – The number of people filing for unemployment benefits last week was greater than expected, raising concern about the state of the economy as lawmakers struggle to move forward on a new coronavirus stimulus package.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims for the week ending Aug. 15 came in at 1.106 million. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a total of 923,000. Initial claims for the previous week were also revised higher by 8,000 to 971,000.
“The modest jump is a stark reminder that claims will likely encounter some turbulence as they fall rather than gliding in for a soft landing,” said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor.
Continuing claims, which refer to those receiving unemployment benefits for at least two straight weeks, declined by 636,000 to 14.844 million in the week ending Aug. 8. The continuing claims data series is delayed by one week.
I hope Zhao is right and this is just ‘turbulence’. I expect that’s more likely to be the case considering jobless claims have been falling regularly.
And it probably also indicates the slowness as to which some states are moving through their phases. My state, for instance, is still in phase two and will be through labor day week.
Hopefully we’ll see the numbers fall again next week.