Jobless Claims = 1.877 million

Today’s jobless claims report came in at 1.877 million. That’s another decline, our ninth in a row, but it was worse than expectations.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 1.775 million new claims. The Labor Department’s total nevertheless represented a decline from the previous week’s upwardly revised total of 2.126 million. Filings under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program totaled 623,073.

This was the first time the government’s weekly jobless claims report came under 2 million since the week ended March 14.

“Even as states reopen, claims in the millions are an indicator that the economic pain of the COVID-19 crisis is still acute,” said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at job placement site Glassdoor.

Tomorrow is the big May jobs report.

Yesterday, the S&P 500 rose for the fourth day in a row and the seventh time in the last eight sessions. As I write this, the index is up by a tiny bit.

Posted by on June 4th, 2020 at 11:20 am


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