New unemployment claims rose but remained near a 52-year low last week, with the weekly pace of new claims holding below pre-pandemic levels as the labor market sees job openings near a record high.
The Labor Department released its latest weekly jobless claims report Thursday morning and here are the main metrics compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
- Initial jobless claims, week ended Jan. 1: 207,000 versus 195,000 expected and a revised 200,000 during the prior week
- Continuing claims, week ended Dec. 25: 1.7 million versus 1.7 million expected and a revised 1.7 million during the prior week
The U.S. economy saw another week with new jobless claims coming in below their pre-virus levels, as new claims averaged around 220,000 per week throughout 2019. And though claims came in slightly higher than expected, some economists had warned heading into the report that the timing of this week’s data around the holidays might cause some additional distortions.
“Signal-to-noise ratio is high at this time of year, because seasonal adjustment over the holidays is extremely difficult, so all forecasts are tentative,” Ian Shepherdson, chief economist for Pantheon Economics, wrote in a note earlier this week. “The trend, though, is falling.”
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