U.S. weekly jobless claims fall to 342k, better than expected

Posted Apr 24th 2008 9:22AM by Joseph Lazzaro
Filed under: Employees, Economic Data, Recession

Initial U.S. jobless claims decreased 33,000 to 342,000 for the week ended April 19 - - substantially below the consensus estimate, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday. Claims for the previous week were revised up 20,000 to 375,000.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected this week's initial jobless claims to total 375,000.

Also, the four-week moving average decreased 7,250 to 369,500. Economists view the 4-week average as a better indicator of unemployment conditions, as it smooths-out anomalies for strikes, holidays, or other idiosyncratic events.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 12 were in California, +8,791, Florida, +4,281, Michigan, +2,943, North Carolina, +2,415, and Puerto Rico +1,452. The largest decreases were in Kentucky, -2,502, Oregon, -1,646, South Carolina, -1,543, New York, -1,436, and Illinois, -1,397.

Meanwhile, the number of continuing claims decreased by 65,000 to 2.934 million from a revised 2.999 million for the week ended April 12, the latest period for which figures were available.

Economic Analysis: A decent weekly jobless report, relatively speaking. Weekly claims were well below the consensus estimate, and the 4-week moving average declined slightly. However, the 4-week average is still considerably above the U.S. Federal Reserve's danger level of 350,000. The U.S. Federal Reserve considers a 4-week average above 350,000 a signal of soft labor market conditions.

Tags: featured, jobless claims, jobs, U.S. Labor Department, unemployment

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-24-2008 @ 11:08AM

JP said...

LOL, well, when hundreds of thousands of construction workers have already been laid off, sooner or later, companies will start to slow down the pink slip churn out.

"Jim, let's not lay off so many people so quickly for now... we've cut enough costs to meet EPS for 2008. If things get worse, we'll just need to cut more next quarter to maintain our EPS guidance."

I don't understand when we expect the absolute worst of 375 THOUSAND job losses... and it comes in with 342 THOUSAND.... that would evidently signal some sort of long-term capitulation?

It's the same deal Wall St analysts with their jobs on the line are doing with financials. "Wait, you don't have $10 billion in write-off's this quarter? Only $6 billion? The rest you'll put in Level 3 assets for now to write off in 2009? Good enough for me, boss! UPGRADE!"

What? Give me a break!

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