Initial jobless claims and continuing claims highlights
- Prior report revised up 9K to 6615K
- Initial jobless claims 5245K versus 5500K estimate
- 4- week average for initial jobless claims 5508.5 K vs 4267.75K
- Continuing claims 11976K vs 13260K estimate. Record level for continuing claims
- 4-week average for continuing jobless claims 6066.25K versus 3497.75K
- The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 4 were in Georgia (+256,312), Michigan (+84,219), Arizona (+43,488), Texas (+38,982), and Virginia (+34,872),
- The largest decreases were in California (-139,511), Pennsylvania (-127,037), Florida (-58,599), Ohio (-48,097), and Massachusetts (-41,776).
- A total of 22 million workers have now applied for jobless claims over the last 4 weeks.
Other sharp rise in initial jobless claims bringing the total to over 22 million workers over the last 4 weeks being laid off. The bright spot is that the pace of claims have declined for the 2nd consecutive week after peaking at 6867K in the week of March 27, 2020.
Continuing claims rose by the highest level ever. Note that the continuing claims lag the initial claims by one week (initial claims was for April 10 while the continuing claims is for April 3). As a result we can expect another record next week.
