Claims pop, PPI does not

Initial jobless claims popped to 242k which was much greater than the estimate of 225k and up from 229k last week. Also of note, continuing claims rose back above 1.8mm at 1.82mm, 25k more than expected and still hovering around the highest since November 2021.

That’s the biggest one week count of unemployment benefit filers since August 2023 and puts the 4 week average at 227k from 222k, the highest since September 2023.

Bottom line, is this another one week quirk explained by some state’s reporting issue? We’ll see and whether next week’s claims figure reflects that or not. And if not, we might be on the cusp of a change in tone with regards to firing’s just as we’ve seen with hiring’s.