Following the blowout June jobs report, market participants got another update on the state of the U.S. labor market Thursday morning with the release of the weekly initial jobless claims report.
Another 1.3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending July 4, below economists’ expectations for 1.4 million initial jobless claims. The prior week’s figure was revised a fraction lower to 1.4 million. Weekly jobless claims have decelerated for 14 consecutive weeks; however, nearly 50 million Americans have filed for unemployment insurance over the past four months.
“While initial jobless claims remain historically high, at more than 1 million per week, this is a gross rather than net number. The actual number of people collecting unemployment continues to steadily decline, as shown by the move down in continuing claims,” Wells Fargo said in a note on July 2.
Click here to read the full report from Heidi Chung of Yahoo Finance.
Closely watched continuing claims, which lag initial jobless claims data by one week, totaled 18.1 million in the week ending June 27 from 18.8 million in the prior week. Consensus expectations were for 18.7 million for the week.