Initial Jobless Claims rose by 8,000 in the latest week, with 229,000 people filing new unemployment claims. There were also 1.792 million people still receiving benefits after filing their initial claim, as Continuing Claims increased by 2,000.
What’s the bottom line? While Initial Jobless Claims remain low on a historical basis, Continuing Claims are still trending near some of the hottest levels we’ve seen in recent years, suggesting that layoffs remain low but the pace of hiring has slowed. This correlates with the slowdown in hiring seen in the JOLTS report, as well as the latest Job Cuts report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which showed that hiring announcements fell to their lowest year-to-date level in a decade.