Unemployment Claims Dip But Remain Stubbornly High

Initial unemployment claims dipped slightly to 1,508,000.

For the 13th consecutive week, initial unemployment claims topped the 1.5 million mark. 

Initial Claims 1980-Present

(Click on image to enlarge)

To put things into proper perspective, initial unemployment claims never topped the 1 million mark before Covid-19.

Now we have had 13 consecutive weeks in which claims topped 1.5 million.

Econoday Consensus

The econoday consensus estimate for claims was 1.22 million.

For many weeks the number of claims have topped the Econoday consensus. 

Things are improving, but much slower than expected.