The Real Economy Blog

Economic News from RSM

Home > Coronavirus > Initial jobless claims: No meaningful improvement in the pace of firings

Initial jobless claims: No meaningful improvement in the pace of firings

by

The pace of first-time jobless claims over the past few weeks denotes some slowing in the easing of firings across the economy. The stalling out suggests that the easy gains of the recovery’s early stages are likely in the rear-view mirror and the hard work of digging out of the economic abyss lies ahead.

The reality of an economy operating at 80% capacity has finally sunk in.

One gets the sense that the reality of an economy operating at 80% capacity has finally sunk in, and pricing action across asset classes over the past month tends to bear that out.

Initial jobless claims for the week of Sept. 19 arrived at 870,000, up from 860,000 during the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Once one includes the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims of 630,080, that figure rises to more than 1.5 million.

Continuing claims of 12.5 million imply an insured unemployment rate of 8.6%. Through the week of Sept. 5, there were 26 million people receiving some form of unemployment insurance, with 11.5 million of them on the federal pandemic assistance program.

For more information on how the coronavirus is affecting midsize businesses, please visit the RSM Coronavirus Resource Center.

Related posts

  • Initial jobless claims fall below 1 million

    For the first time in five months, first-time jobless claims fell below one million to 963,000 for the week ending Aug. 8, while continuing claims eased to 15.5 million, Labor Department data shows.

  • Initial jobless claims rise to 230,000

    First-time jobless claims increased to 230,000 for the week ending April 26, well above our preferred metric, the 13-week moving average of 217,100.

  • Initial jobless claims arrive above expectations

    First-time initial jobless claims increased by 884,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, higher than the 850,000 anticipated, and by 857,000 on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, according to data released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

About Joseph Brusuelas

@JoeBrusuelas

Joe Brusuelas, “chief economist to the middle market,” is the preeminent voice championing issues and policies facing midsize companies in the United States and around the world. An award-winning economist, Brusuelas has more than 20 years’ experience analyzing U.S. monetary policy, labor markets, fiscal policy, international finance, economic indicators and the condition of the U.S. consumer.

A member of the Wall Street Journal’s forecasting panel and the UCLA Anderson School of Management's Board of Directors, Brusuelas regularly briefs members of Congress and other senior officials regarding the impacts of federal policy on the middle market and the factors by which middle market executives make business decisions. He also frequently offers his insights on the U.S., Canadian and global economies in the financial media. In 2020, he was named one of the 100 most influential economists by Richtopia. In December 2023, Brusuelas and the economics team were recognized on Bloomberg's list of Best Bond Forecasters after correctly predicting where the benchmark Treasury would end the year.

Before joining RSM in 2014, Brusuelas spent four years as a senior economist at Bloomberg L.P. and the Bloomberg Briefs newsletter group, where he co-founded the award-winning Bloomberg Economic Brief. Earlier in his career, he was a director at Moody's Analytics covering the U.S. and global economies for the Dismal Scientist website. He also served as chief economist at Merk Investments L.L.C. and chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal.

The Real Economy Blog