What Are Jobless Claims?

Jobless claims are a statistic reported weekly by the U.S. Department of Labor that counts people filing to receive unemployment insurance benefits. There are two categories of jobless claims: initial, which comprises people filing for the first time, and continuing, which consists of unemployed people who have already been receiving unemployment benefits. Jobless claims are an important 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:leading indicator of the state൩ of the em𝕴ployment situation and the health of the economy.

Understanding Jobless Claims

The nation's jobless claims are an extremely important indicator for macroeconomic analysis. A weekly report produced and published by the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Department of Labor (DOL) tracks how many new people filed for 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:unemployment benefits in the previous week. As such, it is a good gauge of the U.S. job market. For instance, when more people file for unemployment b𓆏enefits, it general🌺ly means fewer people have jobs, and vice versa.

Investors can use this report to form an opinion of the country's economic performance. However, it is often very volatile data because it is reported every week. The moving four-week average of jobless claims is often monitored rather than the weekly figure. The report is released Thursday mornings at 8:30 a.m. ET and can be a market-moving event.

There were 219,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ending Feb. 15, 2025, and about 1.87 million continuing claims during the week ending Feb. 8, 2025. The unemployment rate was 4% as of January 2025.

How Jobless Claims Affect the Market

As mentioned, the initial jobless claims measure emerging unemployment and the continued claims data measure the number of people still claiming unemployment benefits. The continued claims data is released one week later than the initial claims. For this reason, the initial claims usually have a higher impact on the financial markets.

Many financial analysts incorporate estimates of the report into their market forecast. If a weekly release on jobless claims comes insignificantly different than consensus estimates, this can move the markets higher or lower. Generally, the move is the inverse of the report. If 💟initial jobless claims are down, the market will often rally upwards. If the initial jobless claims are up, the market may slump.

The Initial Jobless Claims Report gets a lot of press due to its simplicity and the basic assumption that the healthier the job market, the healthier the economy. That is, more people working means more 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:disposable income in the economy, which leads to higher personal consumption and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:gross domestic product (GDP).

Why Jobless Claims Matter to Investors

Markets may react strongly to a mid-month jobless claims report, particularly if it shows a difference from the cumulative evidence of other recent indicators. For instance, if other indicators show a weakening economy, a s꧅urprise drop in jobless claims could slow down eq⛄uity sellers and could actually lift stocks.

Sometimes this happens simply because there isn't any other recent data to chew on at the time. A favorable initial jobless claims report may also get lost in the shuffle of a busy news day and hardly be noticed by Wall Street.

Jobless claims are also used as inputs for the creation of models and indicators. For example, average weekly initial jobless claims are one of the 10 components of the Conference Board's 澳洲幸运5官方开奖⭕结果体彩网:Compoꦏsite Index of Leading Indicators.

The Bottom Line

Jobless claims are the number of people filing weekly to receive unemployment insurance due 💫to not having a job. It is an important leading indicator of the health of the economy. If jobless claims are growing, it signals a weakening economy. Conversely, i🃏f jobless claims are decreasing, it signals an improving economy.