Initial Jobless Claims At 5-Month Highs As Layoffs Accelerate

The number of Americans seeking jobless benefits for the first time was 229k last week, pushing the 4-week average to its highest since late-January.

Additionally, continuing claims rose very modestly from 1.31 million to 1.315 million Americans.

Source: Bloomberg

Michigan and Connecticut saw the biggest increase in claims last week while Illinois and Florida saw the largest decrease…

Overall, the total number of Americans on some form of dole rose over 14,000 to almost 1.3 million people…

We suspect things are about to accelerate rather notably in claims data as layoffs have very recently started to accelerate dramatically…

Source: LayoffsTracker.com

Mission Accomplished Mr.Powell?