Weekly Jobless Claims Preview Unemployment & Payrolls Data

The U.S. Labor Department is out with its report on weekly jobless claims for the prior week.  Today’s report is unlikely to change the unemployment and payrolls projections due tomorrow.  The newest report on weekly jobless claims fell by an adjusted 6,000 to 357,000 for the prior week.  Bloomberg had a consensus target expectation of 360,000 after a preliminary figure of 359,000 in the prior week.  The revision went to 363,000 for the prior week.

Two other considerations were released as well. The four-week moving average came down by 4,250 to 361,750 in this report.  Another key report was the army of unemployed measured by the continuing jobless claims, with a one-week delay, came in with a drop of 16,000 to 3,338,000.

Today’s data was effectively the last full look at the unemployment and payrolls data due on Friday morning.  The stock market is closed, but the release is still coming out.  Bloomberg expects that unemployment will be flat in March at 8.3% and the non-farm payrolls consensus was most recently at 201,000 for March.  The expectation from private sector payrolls added is 224,000.  Both figures are expected to be lower in March versus February.

JON C. OGG