The Labor Department is out with the newest weekly jobless claims data. The figure came in at 457,000 versus the estimates from Bloomberg of 485,000. The preliminary unrevised figure a week ago was 466,000, and that was revised to 462,000 for the final figure. The army of unemployed measured in the continuing jobless claims rose by 28,000 to 5,465,000.
For whatever it is worth, last week was a wild card that could have gone either way as the Thanksgiving holiday always throws a curve ball on this weekly figure.
We also saw the data on non-Farm productivity and unit labor costs as a revised Q3 data. Non-Farm Productivity was far too high in the preliminary figure, and that was revised down to 8.1% from 9.5%. Unit Labor Costs were also revised down to -2.5% from an original report of -5.2%.
This sub-500K is not enough in jobless claims to move the needle on unemployment, but it is better than where we had been.
JON C. OGG
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