Initial Jobless Claims totaled 444k, 4k higher than expected and last week was revised up by 4k to 448k. The 4 week average moved down to 451k from 460k, a 6 week low but still remains above the recent low of 439k in early Feb and for an economy that has begun creating jobs again, claims should be running below 400k at this point in the recovery and thus implies that this recovery is not your typical one. Continuing Claims rose by 12k and was 37k above expectations but those receiving Extended Benefits fell by 202k and was hopefully due more to new hiring than because of the exhaustion of benefits as they run out.
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