Weekly jobless claims came in with a lackluster drop of 4,000 to 444,000, effectively in-line with Dow Jones estimates. The week before was revised from 444,000 to 448,000. The good news is that the weekly claims are not rising at any significant rate, but the bad news is that the weekly claims figures need to get well under 400,000 before there is any massive jobs recovery.
The four-week moving average fell 9,000 down to 450,500 from a week ago at a revised level of 459,500.
The army of unemployed measured by the continuing jobless claims rose by 12,000 to 4,627,000 from last week’s revised level of 4,615,000. Still a massive number.
These numbers are not strong enough to make any economist say that May is going to be the blowout month for non-Farm Payrolls and unemployment. Not yet at any rate.
JON C. OGG
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