There was little excitement from today’s report on weekly initial jobless claims as the Labor Department reported that claims fell by just 3,000 in the latest week to 420,000. The 4-week moving average continued to show modest progress, falling 5,250 to 422,750. Continuing claims dipped by 183,602 to 4.03 million.
Not much progress in the latest week, but the data are showing that claims are establishing a new and lower level, suggesting the labor market is slowly on the mend and economic activity is accelerating modestly.
But progress on the job front has been slow. The recent dip does suggest we may see an improvement in December payroll number, though November’s disappointing increase in employment, if followed up by another weak number, might just be signaling that firings are down but company’s remain cautious about hiring.
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