Jobless Claims Drop to Lowest Level Since March 2008
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 08:41AM Initial jobless claims for the latest week came in at 352K, reversing last week's increase of 402K. While there are likely some seasonal factors playing a role in the recent week to week trends, the trend has certainly been lower. This week's level of 352K is the lowest reading since March 2008.
The four-week average of jobless claims also dropped this week for the eighth time in ten weeks, although at a level of 379K, this indicator is still above the low levels we have recently seen.
Finally, on a non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) basis, initial claims dropped by 125K to 522K (funny how no one talks about NSA numbers when they are dropping). In the chart below, we show the non-seasonally adjusted claims going back to 2000, including a red dot for the second week of January in each year. Here again, jobless claims are at their lowest level since 2008.
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