Jobless Claims Fall Slightly More Than Expected

After reaching what was tied for the highest weekly reading (215K) since July last week, jobless claims fell slightly more than forecast, dropping from 215K down to 210K compared to expectations for a level of 211K. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the previous sentence was the fact that a weekly reading of 215K represented a three-month high in claims. That’s just how low claims have been! As for the streaks, the weekly print has now been at or below 300K for a record 189 straight weeks, been at or below 250K for 54 straight weeks, and at or below 225K for 15 straight weeks.

Even though claims declined this week, the four-week moving average increased slightly, rising from 209.75K up to 211.75K. That’s still less than 6K from the multi-decade high of 206K back from mid-September, but based on the recent prints, it doesn’t look like we will be getting anywhere near that record in the near future.

On a non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) basis, jobless claims fell from 199.9K down to 190K. For the current week of the year, that’s more than 130K below the average since 2000 and the lowest weekly print since the same week in 1969.