Initial Jobless Claims matched expectations for the week ending July 31, according to the Department of Labor’s weekly report… (Department of Labor)
- Initial claims were 385,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week’s revised level. Forecasts had expected 384,000 claims.
- The 4-week moving average was 394,000, a decrease of 250 from the previous week’s revised average.
Continuing claims beat expectations for the week ending July 24…
- Continued claims were 2,930,000, a decrease of 366,000 from the previous week’s revised level. Forecasts had expected a much smaller drop to 3.26M.
- The 4-week moving average was 3,188,250, a decrease of 109,250 from the previous week’s revised average.
Looking at state-level data for the week ending July 24th…
- The states with the biggest increases were California (+8,010), Tennessee (+1,694), Michigan (+449), New Jersey (+420), and Florida (+140).
- The state with largest decreases were in Pennsylvania (-21,218), Texas (-11,154), Kentucky (-7,185), Illinois (-7,060), and Missouri (-5,351).
Meeting forecasts is never a bad thing and the huge drop in the 4-week moving average is more proof we are continuing to move in the right direction. After Wednesday’s ADP report there was concern the economic recovery was slowing down. Hopefully, tomorrow’s jobs report will show the ADP report was a fluke and not a sign of things to come.
