Jobless Claims Move Back Down

After a week where jobless claims ‘surged’ to 215K, this week they resumed their downward trend falling to 207K versus expectations for a reading of 215K. This now makes it a record 187 straight weeks that claims have been at or below 300K, 52 straight weeks that they have been at or below 250K (longest streak since 1970), and 13 straight weeks where they have been at or below 225K (longest streak since 1969).

Despite the decline in claims this week, the four-week moving average moved slightly higher rising from 206.5 up to 207K. Even with the increase, though, claims are now just 1K above their multi-decade low of 206K from two weeks ago.

On a non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) basis, claims ticked down to 165.2K. For the current week of the year, that’s the lowest reading since 1969, and it’s also more than 117K below the average for the current week of the year dating back to 2000.