Tag: jobless claims

Initial Jobless Claims Collapse To April 2000 Lows

Everything must be peachy. Jobless claims are the lowest since April 2000 and just below the levels of 2007.

I’m racking my brain. What happened shortly after April 2000 and October 2007?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Tyler Durden's picture

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/16/2014 08:36 -0400

As we noted last week, when there is no hiring, there is no firing…

and so it is that initial jobless claims collapsed to 264k this week (versus 290k expectations) – the lowest since April 2000 (and 2nd lowest ever on record). That is not what the market wants to hear right now… it is craving bad news to get The Fed re-engaged. Continuing claims inched higher from 2.382 million to 2.389 million but remains near cycle lows.  

 

To sum up: its never been better than this for employment… according to the government-supplied data. Unless you look at this…

 

 

 

Charts: Bloomberg

JOBLESS CLAIMS AT LEVELS PRIOR TO 2000 AND 2008 COLLAPSES

The MSM was blathering about unemployment claims being at 2006 levels today. The market celebrated by dropping 300 points. The busy chart below shows the fascinating economic recovery we’ve experienced since the last time unemployment claims were this low. Average wage growth has stayed below the level of inflation. Real median household income is still 8% lower than it was in 2007. Mortgage applications are at 1997 levels. But Wall Street has somehow engineered higher home prices with no one applying for mortgages and millions of people taking home less pay.

Shortly after jobless claims reached today’s levels in 2000, the S&P 500 fell 45%.

Shortly after jobless claims reached today’s levels in 2007, the S&P 500 fell 55%.

This is as good as it gets with jobless claims.

Guess what happens next.