Labor Department Shows Huge Jump in Weekly Jobless Claims

The U.S. Labor Department has released a somewhat disappointing reading for weekly jobless claims. Claims rose by a sharp 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted reading of 313,000. The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg were both calling for a consensus reading of 290,000 for the week.

What stands out here is that this jump in weekly jobless claims was higher than every single expectation of the economists that had been polled.

The four-week average rose by 11,500 to 294,500. Continuing claims, what we call the army of the unemployed (and with a one-week lag) fell by 21,000 to 2.401 million.

Investors and market observers may look for aberrations or excuses for the large gain, but the Labor Department gave its usual saying: “There were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims.” That being said, last week was a shortened week for President’s Day. Whether that led to more layoffs and jobless claims, and the weather in the Northeast, is a verdict we will leave up to the readers.

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If you want to look at the unadjusted reporting, which does not smooth out seasonal and other factors, the Labor Department said:

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 280,000 in the week ending February 21, an increase of 2,096 (or 0.8 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 25,110 (or -9.0 percent) from the previous week. There were 312,665 initial claims in the comparable week in 2014.