The release of US jobless claim results were a bit better than expected, as intial claims slipped by 31,000 to 639,000 during the week ended February 28 while continuing claims fell 14,000 to 5,106,000 during the week ending February.
Ultimately, though, initial jobless claims remain very close to their 1982 highs and the drop does little to suggest that employment conditions have improved, especially since continuing claims remain close their highest levels since record-keeping began in 1967. Furthermore, the rise in claims remains extremely high from a year ago, with initial claims up 85.8 percent and continuing claims up 81.8 percent. The status of claims does not bode well for tomorrow's release of US non-farm payrolls, as the US economy is expected to have lost a whopping 650,000 jobs during the month of February alone, the most since October 1949.
US Initial Claims (Green), Continuing Claims (White), Unemployment Rate (Blue)
Source: Bloomberg
