The U.S. Department of Labor reported that weekly jobless claims were at 272,000 in the week ending February 20. Its report from a week ago was 262,000. The consensus estimate from both Bloomberg and Dow Jones called for a weekly claims report of about 272,000.
This is a report that did not make many waves in financial markets, and it should not drastically alter expectations for unemployment and payrolls, after last week’s strong report was the sample week for the Labor Department.
As usual, the Labor Department said that no unusual factors affected the report.
The Labor Department’s four-week average on claims, which aims to smooth out any weekly volatility, was 272,000, versus the prior week’s 273,250.
One aspect of claims that 24/7 Wall St. prefers to focus on is the broader continuing claims. This comes with a one-week lag, but it is also what we refer to as the army of the unemployed. This figure fell by 19,000 to 2.253 million.
The unemployment rate for insured workers was flat at 1.7%.
Each weekly jobless claims report is a seasonally adjusted report. The unadjusted report was described as follows:
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 248,703 in the week ending February 20, a decrease of 9,729 (-3.8%) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 19,114 (-7.4%) from the previous week. There were 280,639 initial claims in the comparable week in 2015.
Is Your Money Earning the Best Possible Rate? (Sponsor)
Let’s face it: If your money is just sitting in a checking account, you’re losing value every single day. With most checking accounts offering little to no interest, the cash you worked so hard to save is gradually being eroded by inflation.
However, by moving that money into a high-yield savings account, you can put your cash to work, growing steadily with little to no effort on your part. In just a few clicks, you can set up a high-yield savings account and start earning interest immediately.
There are plenty of reputable banks and online platforms that offer competitive rates, and many of them come with zero fees and no minimum balance requirements. Click here to see if you’re earning the best possible rate on your money!
Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.
Latest from 24/7
