Initial Jobless Claims totaled 584k, 9k higher than expected and the prior week was revised up by 5k to 559k. This should be the first clean number in weeks where it’s not influenced by the seasonal distortions that was brought by the differing time schedules of auto plant shutdowns. The insured unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.7% and there is a sigh of relief in the market that it didn’t spike higher now that the claims data is not artificially suppressed due to seasonal distortions. Continuing Claims were 103k less than expected and down 54k below last week. Due to the dynamic of people no longer collecting the initial 26 week time period and thus weighing on those collecting Continuing Claims (as opposed to seeing a pick up in job growth), those getting emergency unemployment compensation rose almost 25k (not seasonally adjusted). The amount added to extended benefits fell by 37k.
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