After rising unexpectedly last week (to 412k), initial jobless claims were expected to drop back (to 380k), but perhaps most notably,today’s jobless claims report is the first to reflect the early June 12 phase out emergency benefits in Alaska, Iowa, Missouri and Mississippi.
The analysts were wrong -initial claims printed 411k (notably worse than the 380k expected) and relatively flat from the week before...
But something crazy is going on in PA as for the second week in a row, it was the massive outlier in initial claims...
And this was the previous week...
Continuing claims improved, falling to 3.39mm - the lowest since pre-COVID...
Source: Bloomberg
Overall, 14.845 million Americans remain on some form of government dole...
Basically unchanged from the previous week...
With over 9.2 million job openings out there,
As more and more states end the handouts, will Americans who have grown accustomed for being paid to do nothing be willing to take a job?