Jobless Claims Surprise to the Downside
Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 09:28AM In a sea of weaker than expected reports this morning, jobless claims provided a glimmer of hope. While economists were forecasting weekly claims to come in at a level of 379K, actual claims came in at 359K, which was the lowest reading since July 20th.
Following this week's drop in weekly claims, the four-week moving average dropped to 374K for its first weekly drop since August 10th. It has now been 26 weeks since the four-week moving average for jobless claims made its current post-recession low of 363K on March 30th. This is the second longest streak of the recovery, behind last year's 31 week streak without seeing a new low.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, jobless claims dropped by 30K down to 300.7K. This is the lowest level for the current week since 2007 and below the historical average for the current week of 316.8K.
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