Jobless Claims: Fifth Decline

Bottom Line:  Claims fell for the fifth week after ticking higher in late July and early August. This latest report was influenced by seasonal factors, which had expected an increase of nearly 18k versus actual unadjusted claims that were nearly unchanged. Still, there were no major aberrations in the state-level data, and the short- and medium-term trends remained firmly to the downside. Overall, the labor market remains off the tightest levels but is still historically tight and possibly tightening again.Initial Jobless Claims FELL -20k in the week ended September 16th to 201k, BELOW the 4-week average of 217k, BELOW the 13-week average of 229.84615k but 10k ABOVE the year-ago level.

Continuing Claims FELL -21k in the week ended September 9th to 1.662M, BELOW the 4-week average of 1.687M, BELOW the 13-week average of 1.702462M but 373k ABOVE the year-ago level.