So much for the idea of 'slack' in the economy, initial jobless claims just plunged 19k week-over-week to 284k (vs 307k expected) - the lowest since Jan 2006 (which was the lowest print since May 2000). This is the biggest beat of expectations in over 2 years. Continuing claims fell modestly. Let's not go popping the champagne corks of full recovery quite yet as non-seaonally-adjusted claims collapsed by their most in 6 months as the government saw fit to warn data-consumers that "claims are often very volatile this time of year," as auto shutdowns can cause claims to fluctuate. In other words, ignore this noise.
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Great news... except...
- *LABOR SAYS AUTO SHUTDOWNS CAN CAUSE CLAIMS TO FLUCTUATE
- *LABOR SAYS CLAIMS ARE OFTEN VERY VOLATILE AT THIS TIME OF YEAR
- *U.S. TOTAL BENEFIT ROLLS DECREASE BY 8,000 TO 2.5 MILLION
