Initial Jobless Claims Exploded To 13-Month Highs Last Week

Having exposed the total decoupling from reality in initial claims recently (near multi-decade lows despite surging job cuts, weak labor market survey indicators, and higher unemployment rates), last week saw the numbers provided by the government suddenly explode higher (by the most since July 2021) to the highest since August 2023 (258k)…

Source: Bloomberg

Continuing jobless claims also spiked from 1.816mm to 1.861mm Americans…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, of course, there is the potential that Hurricane Helene has had an impact on these numbers, so let’s not get carried away yet that reality is leaking into these numbers.

So – to summarize – inflation printed way hotter than expected this morning and the labor market indicators crashed – good luck with that stagflationary malarkey Mr. Powell.