Jobless claims: Another 268,000 individuals filed new unemployment claims last week

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo Finance

Jobless claims: Another 268,000 individuals filed new unemployment claims last week

Emily McCormick · Reporter
Thu, November 18, 2021, 8:31 AM · 3 min read

New weekly jobless claims came in slightly higher than expected but still eked out a new pandemic-era low on Thursday, with the weekly rate of those rendered newly out-of-work coming closer to pre-virus levels.

The Labor Department released its jobless claims report Thursday. Here were the main metrics from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

-- Initial unemployment claims, week ended November 13: 268,000 vs. 260,000 expected and an upwardly revised 269,000 during prior week

-- Continuing claims, week ended November 5: 2.080 million vs. 2.120 million expected and an upwardly revised 2.209 million during prior week

New weekly jobless claims held below the psychologically important 300,000 level for a sixth straight week. The steady move lower in jobless claims over the past several months has underscored continued improvement in the labor market's recovery, especially on demand side as employers look to hold onto workers.

But labor supply, however, remains tight. Near-record levels of job openings have reflected the extent of the scarcities, and the quits rate surged to an all-time high of 3.0% in September, Labor Department data showed last week. This has in turn incentivized companies to try and keep workers on their payrolls, contributing to the decline in new weekly unemployment claims.

"Labor is going to continue to be tight and we'll continue to focus on retaining our existing team," Target (TGT) Chief Operating Officer John Mulligan told analysts during the company's earnings call on Wednesday.

And at the same time, attracting workers has become more costly for many companies, with many implementing higher wages and bonuses. Both Target and Walmart (WMT) -- the largest private employer in the U.S. -- have cited increased labor costs in their most recent results, adding to the myriad of other companies that have also seen compensation expenses rise.

"What you saw during the quarter in the third quarter, more specifically in gross margin, were costs that came through in terms of supply chain, that would be everything from our domestic supply chains, labor [and] international supply chains as well," said John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart U.S., during the company's earnings call Tuesday.

Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-week-ended-november-13-2021-190507634.html

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Earlier this morning:

New weekly jobless claims likely dropped to lowest level since March 2020
Check back at 8:30 a.m. ET for the results

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Here's the placeholder article, from yesterday afternoon:

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Jobless claims preview Wed, November 17, 2021

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-week-ended-november-13-2021-190507634.html

Yahoo Finance
Jobless claims preview: New claims likely dropped to new March 2020 low of 260,000

Emily McCormick · Reporter
Wed, November 17, 2021, 2:05 PM · 3 min read

New weekly jobless claims are expected to reach a new pandemic-era low yet again on Thursday, with the weekly rate of those rendered newly out-of-work coming closer to pre-virus levels.

The Labor Department is set to release its jobless claims report Thursday. Here are the main metrics expected from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

Initial unemployment claims, week ended November 13: 260,000 expected vs. 267,000 during prior week

Continuing claims, week ended October 30: 2.120 million vs. 2.160 million during prior week

New weekly jobless claims are expected to reach a new pandemic-era low yet again on Thursday, with the weekly rate of those rendered newly out-of-work coming closer to pre-virus levels.

The Labor Department is set to release its jobless claims report Thursday. Here are the main metrics expected from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

-- Initial unemployment claims, week ended November 13: 260,000 expected vs. 267,000 during prior week

-- Continuing claims, week ended October 30: 2.120 million vs. 2.160 million during prior week

New weekly jobless claims are likely to hold below the psychologically important 300,000 level for a sixth straight week. The steady move lower in jobless claims over the past several months has underscored continued improvement in the labor market's recovery, especially on demand side as employers look to hold onto workers.

But labor supply, however, remains tight. Near-record levels of job openings have reflected the extent of the scarcities, and the quits rate surged to an all-time high of 3.0% in September, Labor Department data showed last week. This has in turn incentivized companies to try and keep workers on their payrolls, contributing to the decline in new weekly unemployment claims.

"Labor is going to continue to be tight and we'll continue to focus on retaining our existing team," Target (TGT) Chief Operating Officer John Mulligan told analysts during the company's earnings call on Wednesday.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. From the source:

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

News Release

Connect with DOL at
https://blog.dol.gov

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL
8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, November 18, 2021

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending November 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 268,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020 when it was 256,000. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 267,000 to 269,000. The 4-week moving average was 272,750, a decrease of 5,750 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 14, 2020 when it was 225,500. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 278,000 to 278,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.5 percent for the week ending November 6, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending November 6 was 2,080,000, a decrease of 129,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since March 14, 2020 when it was 1,770,000. The previous week's level was revised up 49,000 from 2,160,000 to 2,209,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,157,250, a decrease of 100,000 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 21, 2020 when it was 2,071,750. The previous week's average was revised up by 12,250 from 2,245,000 to 2,257,250.

{snip}

UNADJUSTED DATA

{snip}

The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending October 30 was 3,184,657, an increase of 618,804 from the previous week. There were 20,815,977 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020.

{snip the rest of the twelve-page news release, until the end}

Weekly Claims Archives
Weekly Claims Data

U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The Department's Reasonable Accommodation Resource Center converts Departmental information and documents into alternative formats, which include Braille and large print. For alternative format requests, please contact the Department at [phone] (voice) or [phone] (federal relay).

U.S. Department of Labor
Employment and Training Administration
Washington, D.C. 20210
Release Number: USDL 21-2033-NAT

Program Contacts:
Thomas Stengle: [phone]
Media Contact: [phone]

[cstanleytech]

2. Retailers such as Walmart, Target, Publix and Krogers could afford to pay even more to bring

their workers pay to an area that restores the same buying power they had 40+ years ago but they still refuse to do so as $15 is well below that comparable area.
All the companies would have to do to afford it would be to trim the amount their largest shareholders are getting a bit and 99.9% of those shareholders will still earn millions in profit from the stock.