Initial Jobless Claims fall more than expected
Initial Jobless Claims totaled 440k, 25k below expectations and bucks the trend over the last few weeks that saw unexpected increases. It is down from 483k last week and is at a 5 week low. The 4 week average, which helps to smooth the weekly volatility, was 469k vs 470k last week. Those collecting claims after the first week and up to 26 fell by 79k and were 62k below expectations and Extended Benefits that reach 99 weeks in some states, fell by 172k after rising 242k last week. There is not enough info within this data to say whether the fall in extended benefits is due to people falling off the rolls because they can’t find a job or because they found new jobs. Based on last Friday’s Jan jobs report, we know job hiring still remains punk but at least the pace of net firing has come to a near halt.
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February 11th, 2010 at 10:42 am
California sales tax revenue for January came in 80% higher than last year too…perry interesting!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/02/state-revenue-better-than-expected-last-month-but-not-enough-to-dent-the-deficit.html
February 11th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
[...] – Even amid the good jobless claims data, keep in mind the pace of firings has diminished, but hiring still seems to be on hold, Miller Tabak’s Peter Boockvar says. [...]
February 11th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Extended Benefits that reach 99 weeks in some states, fell by 172k after rising 242k last week.
This looks like more smoke and mirrors. No matter how you look at it, we still had an increase of 70,000 that were on the extended benefits or 99 weeks. At some point, folks do get bumped off. You can’t collect forever. Many states are running out of funding for unemployment benefits, so it would be expected that those who have been collecting for so long, would eventuallybe told they can no longer collect benefits. 99 weeks is just under 2 years. Thats a hell of a long time to be collecting a paycheck for sitting at home.