Continuing Jobless Claims Hit 5-Month-Highs

The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the first time fell from a revised lower 237k to 232k last week (the lowest since June) which suggests the pain the labor market is improving at the margin. However, continuing claims rose to their highest level since April at 1.438mm…

Source: Bloomberg

Notably, while the seasonally-adjusted claims data remains high, unadjusted initial jobless claims just hit a new record low…

Source: Bloomberg

New York, Massachusetts, and Michigan saw the biggest rise in initial jobless claims while Connecticut, Missouri, and Oklahoma saw the biggest drop in claims…

And finally, ahead of tomorrow’s payrolls print, we wonder just WTF is going on in the US labor market…

Source: Bloomberg

When will all the reported layoffs hit the ‘official’ data?

What would Jack Welch say?