Jobless Claims Surpassed Expectations

The state of the labor market is important for investors, authorities and analysts. Millions of Americans from San Francisco to New York lost their jobs in 2020 and 2021. So, it is not surprising that they are monitoring data released by the Labor Department. Unfortunately, jobless claims were higher than expected last week after previously hitting their lowest level in more than 50 years.

Initial filings for unemployment insurance for the week ended on December 11 206,000. That result surpassed expectations. In the previous week, jobless claims totalled 188,000. Even though the jobless weekly claims total jumped, the four-week moving average totalled 203,750, the lowest since November 15, 1969. 

Jobless claims and Covid-19

Both numbers mentioned above, are much more in keeping with the pre-pandemic environment rather than the outsized numbers shown since layoffs exploded in March of 2020. Weekly jobless claims reached 6.15 million in April 2020. Moreover, weekly jobless claims remained above 300,000 before finally falling below that number in early October 2021.

Interestingly, continuing claims, data for which runs a week behind the headline number, fell 154,000 to 1.845 million. Thus, continuing claims fell to their lowest level since March 14, 2020. 

The Labor Department’s data comes a day after the Federal Reserve’s decision. The central bank will intensify the rate at which the Fed is withdrawing economic support. The Federal Reserve will be buying $60 billion a month in Treasurys as well as mortgage-backed securities. 

Let’s have a look at a report released by the Commerce Department. The report showed that housing starts in November jumped 11.8% from the previous month. Meantime, building permits rose 3.6% to 1.71 million. Both of them were well above respective estimates of 1.56 million as well as 1.66 million.

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