US Jobless Claims: Labor market is under pressure – Wells Fargo

The weekly jobless claims report showed another decline in initial and continuing claims but still remain at historically high levels.  Analysts at Wells Fargo point out that after the prior week was revised higher, this is technically a slowing in claims though clearly the labor market is under pressure

Key Quotes: 

“Initial jobless claims for the week ending on October 3 came in at 840K which marks a slowing from the prior week, but only after revisions that lifted the prior week from 837K to 849K.”

“For more than six months we have had more than 800K people  filing jobless claims every week. To put this in perspective, recall that even at the height of the 2007-09 financial crisis, jobless claims peaked at just 665K.”

“A key driver once again was Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) which accounted for 464K claims – more than half the total figure.”