Initial Claims Drop From 10 Month High As Continuing Claims Keep Rising

After hitting the highest level since November, in the latest week, the number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the first time dipped from a downward revised 252K (was 262K originally) to 250K, well below the consensus estimate of 264K.

Source: Bloomberg

Unlike initial claims, continuing claims are also picking up also and is now at its highest in over 4 months.

 One wonders if this is an actual improvement in the labor market or someone at the DOL got a tap on the shoulder, to make the weakening claims series more compatible with the relentless surge in payrolls.

Still given the mainstream push to claim there is ‘no inflation’ after last week’s 0.0% MoM CPI print, who knows what the arbiters of what is acceptable speech will allow us to claims this time…