EmailThe jobless benefits report continued its recent trend of positive employment numbers as the initial claims level fell from 402,000 for the week ending July 30 to 395,000 for the week ending August 6. The Briefing.com consensus expected the initial claims level to increase to 409,000.
This was the third consecutive week that the initial claims level has remained below the upper bound (410,000) of our "Recovery Zone" and the first time since the week ending April 1 that the claims level fell below 400,000. These levels support non farm payroll growth in excess of the 100,000 needed to sustain normal labor force growth and a stable unemployment rate.
The continuing claims level fell from 3.748 million for the week ending July 23 to 3.688 million for the week ending July 30. That was the first time that the continuing claims level fell below 3.700 million since the end of May. The consensus expected the continuing claims level to fall to 3.700 million.
