The number of initial claims for unemployment for the week ended October 3 was 840,000, the Department of Labor reported this morning.
That was above the 820,000 projected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
And up, er, I mean down, from the 849,000 new claims reported in the prior week.
But the report from last week was revised upwards to that 849,000 from an initially reported 837,000.
So this week’s total was down from the upwardly revised total from the prior week but higher than the initially reported number.
Got that?
Clear away all the revisions and confusion and today’s report shows an economy that has lost most of its momentum. With the number of unemployed is stuck at a horrendously high level. Including state run unemployment programs and gig and self-employed workers collecting unemployment from the federal government’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, who are not eligible for regular state-run unemployment programs, the total number of jobless claims stands at 25.5 million.
