Jobless claims fell for the second time in seven weeks and thanks to a downward revision for the prior week claims almost dipped below 250,000, according to the Department of Labor’s weekly survey…(DOL)
- The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 250,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised level and the lowest level since mid-July.
- Economists had projected a rise in claims to 265,000 for the week ending August 13th.
NOTE: The drop was even more surprising considering the previous week’s level was revised down by 10,000 from 262,000.
California helped lead this week’s drop with 1,965 fewer claims than the previous week. Ohio was a close second with 1,785 fewer claims followed by Georgia (-1,268) and Texas (-1,161).
- Not sure what is happening in Massachusetts but they saw a big jump in initial claims with 5,201 new claims compared to the prior week.
NOTE: Unfortunately continuing claims did rise for the week with a 7,000 increase to 1.43&M. This is, however, slightly lower than economist projections of 1.438M.
