Economic data, including jobless claims, came in weaker than expected this morning.  For seasonally adjusted initial claims, there was a jump to 242K in the first week of June, the highest reading since last August.
 

Before seasonal adjustment, claims totaled 234.7K.  As shown in the first chart below, that is still lower than the comparable week of last year and is also within the range of readings of other recent years save for the much more elevated levels observed in 2020 and 2021.  For this point of the year, claims face seasonal headwinds. Historically, the current week of the year has seen claims rise close to three-quarters of the time with a median increase of 37K. That was right in line with the 38.5K uptick that was observed.

As we will detail further in tonight's Closer, given the NSA number rose by as much as could be expected, it is peculiar that the seasonally adjusted number rose as significantly as it did.
 

Finally, we would note that continuing claims have also pressed higher, reaching 1.82 million.  As shown below, that is the first reading above 1.8 million since the final week of March and the most elevated reading of any week since January 20th.
 

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