Initial Jobless Claims matched expectations for the week ending August 7th, according to the Department of Labor’s weekly report… (Department of Labor)
- Initial claims were 375,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised level. Forecasts had expected exactly 375,000 claims.
- The 4-week moving average was 396,250, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week’s revised average
Continuing claims barely beat expectations for the week ending July 31st…
- Continued claims were 2,866,000, a decrease of 114,000 from the previous week’s revised level. Forecasts had expected a drop to 2.88M. This was the lowest number since March 14th, 2020.
- The 4-week moving average was 3,101,000, a decrease of 99,750 from the previous week’s revised average.
Looking at state-level data for the week ending July 31st…
The states with the largest increases were in Indiana (+3,572), Georgia (+1,421), Rhode Island (+1,285), Alabama (+1,226), and Illinois (+1,160),
The states with the largest decreases were Pennsylvania (-6,113), Texas (-3,745), Michigan (-3,060), Tennessee (-3,000), and Puerto Rico (-2,979).
As Ari Gold said on Entourage, “Beat ’em by a dollar life is great. Miss by a dollar, put a gun in your mouth, and make sure I’m standing behind you.” A beat is a beat and this was the second week in a row expectations were met and exceeded. Obviously, the drops are slowing, but we are still seeing drops which means we are continuing to move in the right direction.