Continuing Jobless Claims Surge To 2 Year Highs

After last week’s surge in NSA initial claims, this week saw that completely erased as SA initial claims edge higher…

Source: Bloomberg

The NSA drop was driven by a plunge in CA claims…

…which reversed the prior week’s huge jump in NSA claims in CA…

WTF!?

But, continuing claims jumped back above 1.9mm (1.926mm to be exact) for the first time since Nov 2021…

Source: Bloomberg

While SA continuing claims jumped, NSA claims plunged (completely decoupled from one another)…

WTF!?

And it’s going to get worse, as Goldman reminds us that ongoing seasonal distortions have increasingly weighed on the level of continuing claims over the last six months, and we now expect that the reversal of those distortions could exert a cumulative boost of 375k to the level of continuing claims between now and March.

We’re gonna need more seasonal adjustments.