U.S. Initial Jobless Claims
Rep: 215K 🚨HIGHER THAN EXPECTED🚨
Exp: 210K
Prev: 202k (revised up from 201k)
A negative release today with initial claims coming in 13k higher the revised figure of 202k last week and higher than the expected 210k.
Up until the 22nd February 2024 (last week) claims reduced from 227k down to 201k for February (26,000 reduction in initial claims). We now have an increase from 202k (revised) to 215k (updated reduction in initial claims for Feb is now at 13,000).
Chart Trend
We are on the decline since March 2023 from c. 245k and we have been slowly moving towards the lows from Oct 2022 at 180k claims
🚨Recession Watch
The Oct 2022 180k chart lows mean we have had a 35k increase in initial claims to date (over 16 months).
Pre-Recession increases (blue on chart) have demonstrated an average increase of 71k over 14 months. We are not at that average increase in initial claims at present however a recession has occurred on a 35k increase previously over 7 months (prior to COVID-19). And if we factor in revised figures (which are not updated on these chart) the increase is 48k (from 167k initial claims lows in April 2022). So we have been increasing in initial claims for 16 months by c. 35 - 48k (against pre-recession averages of 71k over 14 months).
Factoring in the concern of significantly higher numbers of Continuous Claims (see last post), there are some concerns here that both Continuous and Initial Claims are reaching levels consistent with early onset of recession. Whilst saying that, I acknowledge that these sorts of lows in Initial Claims have not been seen since May 1969 which is a long term positive view (But did no matter pre-covid).
A lot to chew on I know..
PUKA