FYI: After falling to 213K last week (revised up from 212K), initial jobless claims returned right back to where they stood the week before at 218K. While that was a bigger increase than expected—up 5K from last week compared to expectations for claims to rise to 215K—claims have not made any significant new high or low. Instead, the data remains right in the range it has been in for the last six months. Claims trending sideways, if not slightly lower over the past year, has not necessarily been a bad thing though as they have held at very healthy levels and continued the record streaks at or below 250K and 300K. Those streaks have grown to 108 and 243 consecutive weeks, respectively. Overall, this week's report was nothing too exciting and only reaffirmed the recent trend of no improvements but also no deterioration in the data.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bespokepremium.com/interactive/posts/think-big-blog/claims-drift-higher
