Jobless Claims
Released On 8/30/2012 8:30:00 AM For wk8/25, 2012
Prior Prior Revised Consensus Consensus Range Actual
New Claims - Level 372 K 374 K 370 K 365 K to 375 K 374 K
4-week Moving Average - Level 368.00 K 368.75 K 370.25 K
New Claims - Change 4 K 5 K 0.0 K
Highlights
Improvement in the jobs market is marginal at best based on the trends in jobless claims data. New claims are unchanged in the August 25 week at 374,000 (prior week revised slightly higher). The 4-week average is 370,250 which is slightly higher than the prior week but slightly lower than the month-ago trend. This latter comparison points to marginal improvement for next week's August employment report.
Continuing claims are also little changed, down 5,000 in data for the August 18 week to 3.316 million. The 4-week average is up 9,000 to a 3.322 million level that, in slight contrast to initial claims, is slightly higher than the month-ago trend. The unemployment rate for insured workers remains stuck at 2.6 percent which is where it's been since mid-March.
There are no special factors skewing today's report which points to another unspectacular round of monthly payroll data and no dramatic improvement for the unemployment rate. |