Initial Jobless Claims, which measures the number of people filing new unemployment claims, declined by 12,000 to 201,000 in the latest week. Continuing Claims also fell by 27,000, with 1.862 million people still receiving benefits after filing their initial claim.
What’s the bottom line? Initial Jobless Claims are still relatively low, while Continuing Claims have been trending higher since reaching a low of 1.658 million in September. The dynamic we’ve been seeing in the labor sector continues, where employers are trying to hold on to workers, but once people are let go it’s more challenging for them to find new employment.
Note that this was an important real-time report because it includes the sample week that the Bureau of Labor Statistics will use in the modeling for their job growth estimates for February’s Jobs Report. Could the low number of initial unemployment claims skew the headline job growth number in a higher direction?
The Fed is also closely watching employment data as they continue to weigh monetary policy. Members will be carefully analyzing the headline job growth figure when February’s Jobs Report is released on March 8.