In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses jobless claims.
- After last week’s significant drop in initial claims for unemployment insurance, initial claims rose by 4,000 to 367,000 for the week of September 29.
- The number of initial claims has been on a downtrend since 2010, when claims were close to 450,000 to 500,000 per month. The level of continuing claims has also fallen from about 5 million in 2010 to 3.2 million as of the week of September 29.
- The official September employment figures will be released tomorrow, but given that there has been no major change in the claims data from August as well as the payroll information that was released yesterday by ADP, a company that processes payroll, the unemployment rate is likely to remain the same at 8 percent.
