Claims data and the Challenger report

Initial jobless claims rose to 224k from 215k and that was 9k more than expected and last week was revised up by 2k. Around the holidays is a always a quirk with this data so I won’t make anything of the lift. Continuing claims, delayed by a week but also subject to seasonal issues depending on the timing of Thanksgiving (early last year, latter this year), totaled 1.871mm which is down from a revised 1.896mm in the week before which was just below the highest since November 2021.

Bottom line, putting aside the holiday seasonal adjustment issues, the level of firing’s as measured here is low but the rate of hiring’s has certainly moderated.