Jobless Claims Jump For The 4th Week In A Row

Jobless claims continue to move in the wrong direction for the week ending September 25th, according to the Department of Labor’s weekly report…(DOL)

  • Initial claims were 362,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 351,000.
  • The 4-week moving average was 340,000, an increase of 4,250 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 335,750.

ANOTHER SWING AND A MISS: Economist had projected that claims would fall to 335k

Continuing claims moved in the right direction with a slight drop for the week ending September 18th…

  • Continuing claims fell to 2,802,000, a decrease of 18,000 from the previous week’s revised level.
  • The 4-week moving average was 2,797,250, a decrease of 750 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 21, 2020.

NOTE: Continuing claims barely missed expectations as economists had a projected a drop to 2.80M

Looking at the state level was a mixed bag for the week ending September 18th…

  • The states with the largest increases were California (+17,218), Virginia (+12,140), Ohio (+4,147), Oregon (+3,413), and Maryland (+2,452).
  • The states with the largest decreases were in Louisiana (-6,935), New York (-2,275), Missouri (-1,568), Oklahoma (-1,264), and New Mexico (-1,055).