Last week, U.S. unemployment claims rose to their highest level since October 2021. It suggests that the increasing number of corporate layoff announcements may have started to lead to actual job cuts.
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The number of continuing unemployment insurance beneficiaries fell by 37,000 to 1.76 million in the week ending May 27, the lowest since mid-February.
Data on the number of applications tends to fluctuate greatly, especially before and after holidays. The week ending June 3 was the Memorial Day holiday. The four-week moving average of less volatile unemployment claims rose to 237,250.
“It reflects a shorter than normal business day due to the Memorial Day holiday,” Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. economist at Santander US Capital Markets, said in a note after the data was released. It should raise suspicions that it was noise rather than signal.” “I’m strongly tempted to look at the data coming out next week before drawing any conclusions,” he wrote.
The latest data highlight that while the labor market is generally strong, it is starting to show signs of cooling. The number of layoffs announced by U.S. companies in the first five months of this year has already surpassed that of the entire year.
U.S. job cuts more than quadruple year-on-year in Jan-May, highest since 2009
Bloomberg Economics economist Eliza Winger said: “The surge in initial unemployment claims to the highest level since October 2021 is consistent with our analysis, and we see a potential surge in layoffs. The unemployment rate is increasingly likely to reach the median forecast of 4.5% by the end of the year among Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) participants. ‘ said.
The number of applications increased to 219,391 on a pre-seasonally adjusted basis. By state, Ohio, California, and Minnesota showed the most significant increases.
See table for detailed statistics.
Original title:US Jobless Claims Surge to 261,000, Highest Since October 2021(excerpt), US Weekly Jobless Claims Rose 28K to 261K; Est. 235K (excerpt)
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2023-06-08 13:24:02
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