Claims data and a pleasant surprise in productivity

Initial jobless claims totaled 227k, 2k more than expected and last week was left unrevised at 221k. This brings down the 4 week average to 228k from 234k and that is the lowest since mid March. Continuing claims, delayed by a week, came in right at 1.7mm, about as expected and up from 1.68mm in the week before. 

The bottom line is the same in that employers are still holding on as best they can to their employees who for many were tough to come by over the past few years. Of course we're hearing pockets of layoffs, particularly in IT, but not enough to meaningfully lift these stats. I also don't expect tomorrow's payroll report to corroborate yesterday's ADP figure and will instead signal that the pace of hiring's continues to moderate. We'll watch the employment component in particular in the ISM services report at 10am.