Weekly Jobless Claims Continue to Bounce Off Recovery Lows

The U.S. Department of Labor released its weekly jobless claims for the week ending on November 15. The reading came in at 291,000, against a Bloomberg consensus estimate of 284,000. The previous revised reading was 293,000.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that no special factors had an impact on this week’s initial claims. The four-week moving average was 287,500, which only increased 2,500 from the previous reading of 285,000.

Continuing claims, which are reported with a one-week lag, came in at 2.33 million, which was a decrease of 73,000 from the previous reading. This marks the lowest level for insured unemployment since December in 2000. The army of the unemployed is getting smaller and smaller.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.6% during the week ending November 8, which was unchanged from the prior week.

Overall, this report is bouncing off multiyear lows from recent readings, and this was really just a matter of time. The good news is that, even though this reading came in over the estimates, the level still remains under the 300,000 mark, which economists use as a barometer for a great jobs market.

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