Thursday, October 24, 2013

It's The Economy Stupid: Jobless Claims and Trade Balance

      Trade Balance was a little bit better than expected, Jobless Claims a little bit worse than expected.  And this is another period’s jobless data with a glitch in it.  Glitches from the government is the new normal.

      More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week as California continued to work through a backlog.

     Jobless claims decreased by 12,000 to 350,000 in the week ended Oct. 19 from a revised 362,000 in the prior period. The median forecast of 48 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a decrease to 340,000. Applications in California remained elevated and analysts weren’t able to determine how  many non-federal workers filed due to the government shutdown, a Labor Department spokesman said as the figures were released to the press.

     Firings may gradually diminish as a backlog of claims processing in California and the end to the closure of

government offices push and pull on the figures. A slower-than- expected pace of hiring in September may reflect companies’ hesitance to ramp up payrolls as lawmakers in Washington feuded over the budget and now prepare for the next round of negotiations.

 

 

Economic Event

Period

Economic Survey

Actual Reported

Original Prior

Revised Prior

Trade Balance

Aug

-$39.4B

-$38.8B

-$39.1B

-$38.6B

Initial Jobless Claims

Oct 19

340K

350K

358K

362K

Continuing Claims

Oct 12

2870K

2874K

2859K

2882K

 

 

John Broussard

Assistant State Treasurer

Chief Investment Officer

State of Louisiana

Department of the Treasury

225-342-0013

jbroussard@treasury.state.la.us

 

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