The Labor Department is out with its report on weekly jobless claims. What makes this report so important today is that this gives a final look at the official Labor Department data before the unemployment and payrolls data is released on Friday morning.
The jobless claims in the last week of July were 365,000, and that is a tad better than the 370,000 consensus estimate from Bloomberg’s economist surveys. Dow Jones also was looking for 370,000. We would note that the surprise report of 353,000 from the week before was revised higher to 357,000.
If you smooth the data out with the four-week average, that fell by 2,750 to 365,500. That appears to be a low not seen in three months or so.
Today’s data was the last official preview for the unemployment and payrolls data for Friday, and those estimates from Bloomberg are roughly 100,000 in nonfarm payrolls and flat at 8.2% unemployment.
JON C. OGG
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