6 days ago
US Continuing Claims Rise to Highest Since November 2021
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226,000. So very close. At this point, it doesn't suggest any kind of massive layoffs are underway. There have been a big question about what's happening in the labor market. And obviously a lot of Fed officials made nervous by the low job creation last week. But so far, we're not seeing the converse of that. Companies laying off anyone yet. Continuing claims rise to 1,974,000 from 1,936,000. And last week's initial jobless claims headline number revised up by 1000 to 219. So very much stable in that area. The other numbers out this morning, nonfarm productivity rises 2.4%. That is more than the 2% anticipated. And it is after a 1.8% decline in the first quarter numbers. The 2.4% is a second quarter number and it comes in after the first decline we had seen in non-farm productivity in some time. The issue here is important because there have been people suggesting there's an argument being made that the economy can withstand a little bit higher inflation because it's pushing productivity up. And that may be the case. We don't know exactly why it went up, but it did go up significantly for the second quarter. Unit labor costs restrained 1.6% after rising 6.9% in the first quarter. So overall, fairly good news. Portrait of the economy this morning.
