Progress is slow and last week’s figure was revised upward, but weekly jobless claims are on a gradual downward path. Weekly initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 in the latest week to 545,000 and the 4-week moving average dipped 8,750 to 563,000.
The trend in weekly claims signals that firms are becoming less pessimistic, but many establishments continue to pare back payrolls at levels that are still unacceptably high.
Continuing claims jumped 129,000 to 6.23 million, reflecting the difficulty the unemployed are having finding work. However, the figure has been muddied somewhat by those who are losing their standard benefits of six month and are no longer counted in the continuing claims figure.
Many qualify for the government’s emergency extension.
For additional information, see Economy 101: What are weekly jobless claims?
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