Jobless claims continue to inch their way up and beat expectations, according to the latest data from the Department of Labor…(DOL)
- Initial jobless claims were 260,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week and higher than economist estimates of 259k.
- Conneticut was almost solely responsible for the hike thanks to 7,095 additional claims followed by California (+530) and West Virginia (+513)
Continuing claims were also higher than expected for the week ending July 23rd as claims climbed to 1.416M, an increase of 48,000 from the prior week. Economists had projected a much smaller increase to 1.37M.
Claims are now up almost 100,000 from the low we saw in April and this was the first time claims were over 260k since January. The labor market is definitely showing signs of loosening, but we won’t know until the big jobs report on Friday.