Continuing Claims Plunge, But Almost 13 Million Americans Remain On The Dole

Initial jobless claims has largely stagnated for the last few weeks and remains so, printing 385k this week (still amost double the ‘normal’ pre-lockdown levels)…

Source: Bloomberg

The good news is that Continuing Claims plunged last week, back below 3 million for the first time since the lockdowns began….

Source: Bloomberg

Indiana and Alabama saw the biggest increases initial claims while Pennsylvania and Texas saw the biggest drops…

After rising the prior week, the total number of Americans on some form of government dole dropped back below 13 million again…

Source: Bloomberg

And the number of Americans on Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Aid rose very modestly last week (with a mixed picture in the data)…

Which still leaves pandemic aid recipients near record highs…

Source: Bloomberg

Sadly, none of this adds much confidence (after ADP’s disaster) to tomorrow’s payrolls print…