U.S. initial jobless claims fall by 16,000 to 339,000 last week

Investing ^ | 04/25/2013

[SeekAndFind]

Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. fell more-than-expected last week, while the previous week’s figure was devised higher, official data showed on Thursday.

In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending April 19 fell by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 339,000, compared to expectations for a decrease of 4,000 to 351,000.

Jobless claims for the preceding week were revised up to 355,000 from a previously reported increase of 352,000.

Continuing jobless claims in the week ended April 13 fell to 3.000 million. Analysts had expected continuing claims to fall to 3.060 million from last week’s revised figure of 3.093 million.

The four-week moving average was 357,500, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 362,000.

The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.

Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar held on to losses against the euro, with EUR/USD adding 0.53% to trade at 1.3085.

Meanwhile, U.S. stock future indices pointed to higher open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.4%, S&P 500 futures pointed to a gain of 0.5%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures pointed to an increase of 0.7% at the open.

[mykroar]

Jobless claims for the preceding week were revised up to 355,000 from a previously reported increase of 352,000.

Not unexpected!

[Night Hides Not]

More people dropping out of the workforce.

[Wyatt's Torch]

The 4 week moving average declines and remains well under the 400K number that is the rule of thumb for job creation:

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Bingo.

China however, is truly doing well.

Their numbers now, look like ours did two decades ago...

BEFORE WE SENT OUR JOBS THERE.

[Starboard]

From Zero Hedge: “It was unclear immediately following the report which states were estimated if any: as a reminder last week the DOL announced that 2 states had their data estimated. Continuing claims dropped from an upward revised 3093K to 3000K, the lowest in 5 years. Of course, with millions of people now prematurely out of the labor participation rate, what if any data the initial claims report provides these days, is very much unclear.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-25/initial-claims-better-expected-down-16k-upward-revised-prior

[Starboard]

Are the weekly revisions EVER down? Of course not.

[Wyatt's Torch]

That’s why you look at the 4-week average not a single week. It smooths the estimates with the revised numbers.

[Iron Munro]

"EUREKA! It's another UNEXPECTED miracle!!!"

[Starboard]

Thanks, valid point. With so many people having dropped out of the workforce the U/E numbers are really not that meaningful in any case. The MSM avoids reporting on them, and on the ever increasing numbers on “disability” and the swelling numbers on food stamps.

[Wyatt's Torch]

I typically look at U6 which includes "Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force"

It has also come down but still way high compared to history:

The problem is that we are stuck in an environment of 2% growth which is just about normal economic inertia. Obama's policies have choked growth off which will result in it taking a long time for headline UE to get back to normal.

I had a meeting with an economist from IHS yesterday and their baseline forecast is for UE to get back to around 6% sometime in 2015-16.

[Starboard]

...baseline forecast is for UE to get back to around 6% sometime in 2015-16
*********
Did they factor in the impact of Obamacare on hiring? Just curious.

[FlingWingFlyer]

It’s Fun With Numbers Thursday!

[OldArmy52]

Got to run out of people to lay off eventually.

When everyone has been laid off, new unemployment applications will finally zero out.

And so the unemployment rate will become zero.

Ergo, when everyone is unemployed, everyone will be employed.

Makes sense to any reasonable Obaba Govt person.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Yes they did. That’s very slow improvement.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Could be but thousands and thousands are hired and fired on a daily basis. There is a ton of churn in the job market.

[FiddlePig]

Sorta good news, bad news to a injured person (like in a Muslim bombing)...

The good news: “you have stopped bleeding”, bad news: “you have no more blood” (RIP).

[Starboard]

OK, thanks for responding.

And then there’s the job quality issue. Another related topic...

[mellow velo]

How many people would normally file in a large city such as Boston in any given week? While one can file online, I don’t believe too many people were leaving their homes last week to head down to their local unemployment offices in Beantown.