Jobless Claims Improve, Still Above Red Line

The Labor Department has shown a slight improvement in the weekly jobless claims.  The weekly reading fell by 16,000 to 414,000 and that 430,000 from the prior week was revised from the preliminary figure of 427,000.  This week’s estimate from Bloomberg was 420,000. This is actually the tenth week back above the 400,000 mark.

The 4-week average, which seeks to smooth out the weekly volatility, was unchanged at 424,750.

What we call the army of unemployed, the continuing jobless claims, fell by 21,000 to 3.675 million.  Lastly, the unemployment rate for workers with unemployment insurance was 2.9%.

This week seems to have no exceptional or unusual items.

JON C. OGG