Over 18 Million Americans Are Still On Government Jobless Benefits

Having bounced back above 20 million in the prior week, the total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell back to just ove 18 million this week… but it’s still 18 million and hasn’t improved materially for four months…

Source: Bloomberg

Initial claims worsened on the week with 770k filing for first time jobless benefits, up from 712k filing the prior

Source: Bloomberg

The increase in claims was dominated by Texas…

We assume the Texas claims will revert next week so for now this appears to be more weather-related than anything fundamental.