Jobless Claims Unchanged

This morning’s initial claims report came in at 884,000. That was above Wall Street’s estimate of 850,000. Remarkably, that’s the exact same number as last week’s report, after it was revised. The good news is that these are the lowest reports since the crisis started six months ago.

We’re actually not far from the worst jobless-claims reports of the Great Recession. In early 2009, the reports peaked at 665,000. In 1982, jobless claims got to 695,000.

The four-week moving average for claims through the week of Sept. 5, a number which helps smooth out volatility in weekly numbers, declined 21,750 to 970,750. The moving average for continuing claims fell 523,750 to 13.982 million.

Claims under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program continued to climb, rising more than 90,000 last week to 838,916. The total of those claiming benefits through all programs, though Aug. 22, also rose to just over 29.6 million.

At the state level, California showed the biggest increase at 17,953 while Florida reported a decline in claims of 9,049, according to unadjusted numbers.

Continuing claims are now at 13.385 million. That’s after peaking at close to 25 million in May. This week’s continuing claims report is slightly higher than last week’s. The Labor Department said that it changed the way it does seasonal adjustments, so the numbers aren’t precisely comparable.

Posted by on September 10th, 2020 at 10:21 am


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