Jobless Claims Improved Last Week Thanks To ‘Odd’ Plunge In Illinois

Following ADP’s major disappointment yesterday, and ahead of tomorrow’s headline-making payrolls print, analysts expected a nudge higher in initial jobless claims last week after two weeks of modest improvements. Instead, initial claims modestly improved from a revised 790k the prior week to 787k last week (better than the 800k expected)…

Source: Bloomberg

A massive plunge in Illinois claims appears to the culprit for the improvement

Pandemic Emergency jobless claims fell last week also…

Source: Bloomberg

Overall, around 20 million Americans remain on government jobless benefits…

Source: Bloomberg

As Joe Brusuelas notes, seasonal factors at the turn of the year tend to damp claims & we are certain that this data understates the true number of those out of work.

There are 19.1 million individuals on some form of UI benefit.