It appears that the employment situation is not really improving. Initial jobless claims for the week of June 12 came in much higher than expected. The 472K figure was above the average estimate of 450K. Seasonally adjusted continuing claims for week of June 5 were also higher, up 88K to 4.57MM.
We touched on the EUC 2008 and extended benefits figures in our earlier post. Extended benefits (provided by state/Federal 50/50) increased slightly. However, we saw a big dip (-191,103) in EUC 2008. This is not an indication of jobs found by those claimants. You see, the government has not passed an extension to the EUC 2008 program, so that number will continue to decrease as many reach their limits and are basically no longer included in that figure. The last week for the EUC 2008 program was May 22. This program was initially intended to be temporary, but the state of the economy and political incentives forced our law makers to extend it for a long time. The economy has not realized any return on this, but those politicians certainly have ... for now.
CPI was in line with expectations, supporting the PPI and capacity utilization stats and, for now, quelling fears of higher inflation.
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