Weekly US jobless claims slip lower again
By Alexander Bueso
Date: Thursday 02 Feb 2023
(Sharecast News) - Unemployment claims in the US continued to run below forecasts over the preceding week, defying expectations for a post-Christmas rebound.
According to the US Department of Labor, initial jobless claims drifted lower by 3,000 over the week ending on 28 January (Barclays Research: 210,000).
Meanwhile, the four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out the volatility in the data from one week to the next, dropped by 5,750 to 191.750.
Secondary unemployment claims, which are those not being filed for the first time and referencing the week until 21 January, fell by 11,000 to 1.655m.
That was on top of a downwards revision to the prior week's reading for secondary claims of 9,000 to approximately 1.67m.
"Elsewhere, the very low level of jobless claims likely will persist for another month or so, thanks to favorable seasonals and the lag from layoff announcements, which have rocketed," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
"Challenger's January data, also just released, show 103K announcements in January, up from just 19K in January last year and the highest for the month since 2009. This is no fluke; the trend is soaring, and claims will follow. Right now, the claims numbers are the single most misleading U.S. macro data; ignore them."
-- More to follow --
Special promo:
Trading the Forex Market? Visit FXmania.com to get advanced infomation about currencies and the Foreign Exchange
Market.
Email this article to a friend
or share it with one of these popular networks:
You are here: news
10 Lower Thames St,
London EC3R 6EN