- Weekly jobless claims totaled 1.48 million last week, worse than the 1.35 million Wall Street estimate.
- Continuing claims fell by 767,000 to 19.52 million.
- California accounted for the biggest surge as claims remained above 1 million for the 14th straight week.
While the weekly numbers remained high and were worse than Wall Street estimates for the second straight week, the total of those receiving benefits continued to fall: Continuing claims fell by 767,000 to 19.52 million.
“Initial and continuing claims point to gradual improvement in the labor market. Falling initial claims signal that the pace of layoffs is slowing, but it still extremely high,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial.
US economy shrank at 5.0% rate in Q1; a much worse drop expected in current quarter due to pandemic.
