After rising for two straight weeks, initial jobless claims crashed to pandemic lows, back below 600k for the first time since early March 2020...
Source: Bloomberg
Notably,the drop in claims was largely driven by a 75,645 drop in California... which, as Joe Brusuelas suggests, isindicative of the problems that remain in processing claims, backlogs and fraud in the states.
Finally, we note that thenumber of Americans on some form of employment-based welfare fell below 17 millionfor the first time since early January...
However, with no new stimmies on the horizon, andemployers finding it increasingly difficult to pry government-handout-heavy employees off the couch to do a day's honest work, we wonder if this is as good as it gets for the post-pandemic jobs situation.