Weekly Jobless Claims Surge Past Estimates

The U.S. Department of Labor has released the most recent report on weekly jobless claims for the week ended on January 10. Initial claims came in 19,000 over the previously revised reading at 316,000, compared to both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg consensus estimates of 295,000 claims. The previous reading was revised up 3,000 to 297,000.

The four-week moving average was recorded at approximately 298,000, which increased only 6,750 from the previous reading of 291,250 claims. The number of claims fell below the 300,000 level in late July and has remained there since. This is the longest that the four-week moving average has remained below the 300,000 level since 2000.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there were no special factors that had an impact on this past week’s reported initial jobless claims.

Continuing claims, which are reported with a one-week lag, decreased by 51,000 to 2.4 million for the week that ended January 3.

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