Despite the BLS claiming no states estimated their data and the previous week's apparently errant (but significantly not revised lower), the claims data this week saw its biggest week-over-week percentage drop since January 2006 (which ironically almost perfectly bottom-ticked the previous 'recovery' claims improvements). Continuing claims, however, rose for the 3rd week in a row - the largest 3-week rise in since March 2009! Of course, the more critical part of the labor department's report is the end of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program which will pay one more claim this week and then 1,333,332 will begin to lose their benefits. EUC benefits cannot be paid for any week of unemployment after Dec 28th (which, of course, is great news for the unemployment rate).

Initial Claims dropped the most since Jan 2006!

and Continuing Claims have seen the biggest 3-week rise since March 2009...



