Durable goods orders and shipments posted sharp increases in October, defying recession fears, according to data from the Census Bureau on Wednesday. New orders rose by 1% in October, while core orders, which exclude transportation and defense, rose by 0.8%. Orders for capital goods, a proxy for ... READ MORE >
initial jobless claims
Housing starts and initial jobless claims give Fed mixed signals
Builders continued to pull back on the supply of new houses in October amid sharp declines in demand as mortgage rates steepened, the Census Bureau reported on Thursday. The decline came as the labor market continued to show resilience, with initial jobless claims falling unexpectedly by 4,000 to ... READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims inch down amid tight labor market
New filings for jobless benefits inched down by 1,000 last week from 218,000, remaining near their historical lows, according to government data released Thursday. With the data on job openings coming out hotter than expected this week, the imbalance between labor demand and supply continued to keep ... READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims fall below pre-pandemic level
New filings for jobless benefits dropped unexpectedly last week despite the impact of Hurricane Ian in Florida. New claims fell by 5.3% to 214,000, below the pre-pandemic average in 2019 as layoffs remain historically low, according to government data released Thursday. In the bigger context, new ... READ MORE >
New jobless claims fall to lowest level since April amid tight labor market
New claims for unemployment benefits fell by a sharp 16,000 last week to 193,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, the fewest since April and well below the market's forecast, according to government data released Thursday. The decline comes amid a debate over how many jobs will be sacrificed to tame ... READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims drop to lowest level since May
The labor market showed continuing strength as last week's new filings for jobless claims fell for the fourth week in a row, tempering recession concerns and bolstering the case for the Federal Reserve to stay aggressive in its interest rate increases. New claims dropped to 222,000, the fewest since ... READ MORE >
Jobless claims show that jobs remain plentiful
First-time claims for unemployment benefits declined to 232,000 for the week ending Aug. 27 as continuing claims increased modestly to 1.438 million from a revised 1.412 million for the week ending Aug. 20. From our vantage point, it would appear that the pace of firings is settling into a pace ... READ MORE >
Better-than-expected GDP and jobless claims push back recession fear
The decline in U.S. gross domestic product growth in the second quarter was less than previously estimated, according to a revised report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis released on Thursday. GDP contracted by only 0.6% in the second quarter instead of by 0.9%, as estimated in July. In the same ... READ MORE >
Existing home sales fall below pre-pandemic level as initial jobless claims hold steady
Existing home sales fell in July to their lowest level since 2020 amid elevated mortgage rates as the Federal Reserve continued to hike interest rates. Sales dropped 5.9% to 4.81 million annualized, marking the sixth straight month of market contraction, the National Association of Realtors reported on ... READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims rise as producer inflation deflates for first time in 2 years
New claims for U.S. jobless benefits rose 5.6% in the first week of August to 262,000 as layoffs continued to pick up, according to Labor Department data released on Thursday. While there has been a clear upward trend in new unemployment claims, the number remained relatively low compared to the ... READ MORE >