The Labor Department is back to reporting volatile data on the weekly jobless claims. We saw in recent weeks a big drop and then a big gain. Now we have a drop of 35,000, down to 353,000, for the previous week. The prior week was revised from 386,000 up to 388,000. Bloomberg had a consensus target from economists of 380,000. That was also the consensus from Dow Jones.
Another measurement is the four-week average, and that fell by 8,750 to 367,250 in the last week. The continuing claims, the army of unemployed which is reported with a one-week lag, fell by 30,000 to 3.29 million.
Today’s news probably will be considered some fresh air for the market, but it has a flip side to it: better jobs will limit the urgency of new quantitative easing measures from Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve. With unemployment at 8.2%, and with more than 3 millions job openings, the employment situation still needs some help.
JON C. OGG
Take This Retirement Quiz To Get Matched With An Advisor Now (Sponsored)
Are you ready for retirement? Planning for retirement can be overwhelming, that’s why it could be a good idea to speak to a fiduciary financial advisor about your goals today.
Start by taking this retirement quiz right here from SmartAsset that will match you with up to 3 financial advisors that serve your area and beyond in 5 minutes. Smart Asset is now matching over 50,000 people a month.
Click here now to get started.
Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.