The number of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time rose by 3,000 in the latest week, as 221,000 InitialJobless Claims were reported. Continuing Claims rose by 39,000, with 1.892 million people still receiving benefits after filingtheir initial claim. This marks the highest amount since November 2021 as Continuing Claims have now topped 1.8 million for 22consecutive weeks.
What’s the bottom line?
While Initial Jobless Claims remain subdued, Continuing Claims have been trending higher as employershave clearly slowed down their pace of hiring. Generally, companies tend to stop hiring (which keeps people on benefits forlonger) before they start firing (which keeps first-time filers tame), and this also explains some of the dynamics in the data. This sentiment was also echoed by ZipRecruiter when they reported third quarter earnings, where they noted that “by severalmeasures this is one of the more prolonged downturns in hiring activity.”