Initial Claims for Unemployment Compensation Charts and data
First time claims for unemployment compensation continued their string of record lows for the same week of the year but the improvement in the weekly number slowed radically last week in what could be the first sign of trend change. The actual number, not subject to any seasonal hocus pocus was 384,481. That was 2,668 claims per million…
The fact that initial unemployment claims keep making record lows does not mean what Wall Street and its Big Media PR flacks want you to think it means. Here’s why.
Employers continue to ignore the signals sent by the recent stock market fracture. They are still hoarding their low cost labor forces at a record rate, exceeding that of any past bubble in history. First time claims for unemployment compensation continued their string of record lows for the same week of the year. The actual number, not subject…
First time claims for unemployment compensation continued their string of record lows for the same week of the year. The actual number, not subject to any seasonal hocus pocus was 220,000 (rounded). That was just 1,548 claims per million employed workers last week. That compares with 1,817 per million in the same week of 2007 just as the housing…
First time claims for unemployment compensation hit a 41 year record low last week at just over 198,000. This was the actual number, not subject to any seasonal hocus pocus. 41 years ago the labor force was only 60% as large as it is today, so on a workforce size adjusted basis this number was even more extreme.…
An analysis of individual state claims serves as a kind of advance decline line for confirmation of the trend in the total numbers. The states report the data to the Department of Labor, which accumulates the data into its weekly national report. It’s also interesting to see how the big oil states are doing. Since…
A 2 year string of record lows in initial unemployment claims finally appears to be ending. First time claims in the September 5 week were not materially lower than last year, and were actually slightly above the first week in the record setting string which began in September 2013. From then until now almost every…
I look at an analysis of individual state claims as a kind of advance decline line for confirmation of the trend in the total numbers. The states report the data to the Department of Labor, which accumulates the data into its weekly national report. It’s also interesting to see how the big oil states are…
The stock market broke, but initial claims are still at record levels. This is how it has historically works as bubbles start to deflate. Employers are the last to get the news. But the very fact of their record long term ebullience was warning enough, as I have repeatedly chronicled here over the past year.…
I look at an analysis of individual state claims as a kind of advance decline line for confirmation of the trend in the total numbers. The states report the data to the Department of Labor, which accumulates the data into its weekly national report. It’s also interesting to see how the big oil states are…
