A very good week, with initial unemployment claims falling to 293,000, the first time that this number has fallen below 300,000 since the before time.
It's good news, and breaks the basically flat trend of the past 4 weeks:
Companies are holding on tightly to employees at the same time few other workers are available and prices are rising in wholesale markets facing supply constraints, both factors contributing to higher inflation.
Shortages of materials are driving up the cost of goods, while the tight labor market is pushing up wages.
New applications for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, declined to a seasonally adjusted 293,000 last week, the Labor Department said. It marked the first week since the Covid-19 pandemic began in March 2020 that jobless claims fell below 300,000, though applications remain above 2019’s average. A proxy for the number of people receiving unemployment benefits also fell to the lowest level since March 2020.
I'm not too worried about inflation, which was at 0.4% for August (about 5% annually), which is significantly lower than what we saw in April, May, and June, 0.8%, 0.6%, and 0.9% respectively.
I remain worried about the current job situation though.
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