Initial jobless claims for the week ending July 19:
- 284K vs 307K expected
- Lowest since Feb 2006
- Prior reading was 302K (revised to 303K)
- Labor Dept warns that claims are often very volatile at this time of year
The comment from the Labor Dept takes a bit of the shine off the report but there’s no arguing that it’s not a great number. You can poke some holes in the US employment picture but not many. There are concerns about part-time jobs and non-existent wage growth but not enough to justify keeping rates at zero. Hiking up to 1.00% is something that shows some normalization and won’t meaningfully damage the real economy.
initial jobless claims
