Jobless claims jumped to the highest level since November, according to the Department of Labor’s weekly survey…(DOL)
Initial jobless claims were up to 244,000 for the week ending July 9th, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level. Economists had projected that claims would remain unchanged for the week
- CONTINUING CLAIMS actually fell for the week to 1,331,000 for the week ending July 2nd, a decrease of 41,000 from the previous week’s revised
level. Economists had actually projected a slight increase to 1.38M.
Despite last week’s great jobs report there does appear to be evidence in the economy that the labor market may be loosening. Yahoo Finance reported this week that major companies, including Alphabet , Microsoft, and Meta announced laying off existing workers or slowing down hiring over economic uncertainty. Kathy Jones, Chief Fixed Income Strategist for Schwab Center for Financial Research said on Twitter, “Initial jobless claims continue to rise off of the March low – a sign that the “tight” labor market is loosening.”
Looking at the state level, the big jump this week was thanks to New York with a 5,165 increase in claims because of layoffs in the transportation and warehousing and health care and social assistance industries. Michigan was a close second with an additional 5,104 claims this week mostly because of layoffs in the automobile industry.
