Jobless Claims, More and More Pain

Weekly jobless claims are getting worse and worse.  At this rate we’ll be above 500,000 per week again very soon.  The weekly jobless claims reported by the Labor Department rose by an adjusted 2,000 to 484,000.  The prior week was revised higher to 482,000 versus the initial 479,000 reported.  Bloomberg had consensus estimates of 460,000

The army of unemployed measured by the continuing jobless claims fell by 118,000 down to 4,452,000, but that was from an upwardly revised figure of 4,570,000 in last week’s revised continuing claims.

For unemployment to show any meaningful improvements, these jobless claims will not just have to get under 400,000 per week. They will need to get closer to 300,000.  Until then, all the “lower unemployment rates” that come from the Labor Department are just manipulated numbers.

The beatings will continue… whether morale improves or not.

JON C. OGG