Continuing Claims Miss By Most In 8 Weeks As Initial Claims Rise

Initial jobless claims rose for the first time in 4 weeks – with, oddly, no upward revision of previous data – but beat expectations for the 3rd week in a row. In the prior week the best state was New York, where claims dropped by 17,548 due to “Fewer layoffs in the transportation and warehousing, educational services, and food services industries.” However, the rise in continuing claims – the most in over 2 months – is perhaps the most notable – missing expectations by the most in 8 weeks. This is notable since this week was the survey period for the all-important Non-Farm Payrolls (well less important now given Yellen’s comments).

Initial claims rose from an oddly not-upwardly revised previous week.