Jobless Claims – Released May 5th, 2022

Initial Jobless Claims, which measures individuals filing for unemployment benefits for the first time, increased 1,000 to 203,000. Continuing claims, which are those that continue to receive benefits after their initial claim, increased 44,000 to 1.384M. This is the lowest number of continuing claims since January 1970. Unemployment claims are extremely low and the labor market remains tight. Even though the increase in initial claims is minor, it has risen the past two weeks and is something we need to keep a close eye on as it’s an early indicator for the unemployment rate.