The Labor Department is showing that weekly jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 388,000 versus a Dow Jones forecast of about 397,000. This may still be too close to the 400,000 mark to make for an improvement, but today’s data is the lowest reading since early in April.
The good news from the prior week’s sub-400K was a tas less good but not too far off as the figure was revised to 393,000 from 390,000. The four-week average, aimed at smoothing out the weekly data, fell by 4,000 to 396,750. Keep in mind that this is also the first drop under 400,000 in months.
The army of unemployed measured by the continuing jobless claims fell by 57,000 to 3,608,000.
It is far too early to celebrate these figures. The 9.0% unemployment reading is not going to get much reprieve from numbers anywhere close to 400,000. Still, the lowest levels in seven months is better than what it could have been.
JON C. OGG
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