US initial jobless claims relatively flat in week ended 13 November
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Thursday 18 Nov 2021
(Sharecast News) - Initial jobless claims remained relatively stable in the week ended 13 November, according to the Labor Department, potentially signalling that the elevated level of layoffs seen during the Covid-19 pandemic may have plateaued.
First time claims for unemployment totalled 268,000 last week, a decline of 1,000 from the prior week to a fresh pandemic-era low but higher than estimates for a print of 260,000.
Continuing claims declined by 129,000 to 2.08m, the lowest reading seen since 14 March 2020, while the four-week moving average declined to 272,750.
Pantheon Macroeconomics' Ian Shepherdson said: "The trivial dip in jobless claims is not significant; the trend is still strongly downward. Unfortunately the numbers will be volatile over the holidays, as usual, starting as soon as next wee's pre-Thanksgiving report, the next clean read on the data will be in mid-January. By then, we think claims will be close to the lows seen in the pre-Covid cycle, about 210,000".
Nancy Vanden Houten and Gregory Daco at Oxford Economics were of a similar view, telling clients: "Initial claims should continue to gradually work their way back toward pre-pandemic levels as employers facing shortages of workers will likely keep layoffs to a minimum.
"Continued claims should also continue to grind lower as more individuals return to the labor market and as benefits expire."
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