It's Thursday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And once again, it appears that the low-hire/how-fire job market is continuing.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, pointing to continued labor market stability despite a sharp slowdown in job growth in September.
Weekly jobless claims have now remained near 57-year lows for four ​straight weeks, the report from the Labor Department showed on Thursday, amid historically low layoffs.

………

"It's still a 'low-hire, low-fire' job market," said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. "That's great for anyone who has a job and wants to keep it, but it's ​tough for job seekers."

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 197,000 for the week ended October 3, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast ​200,000 claims for the latest week.

Claims have held below the 200,000 mark since the second week of September. California and Illinois were the only states to report ⁠an increase in unadjusted applications in excess of 1,000. The four-week moving average of claims, viewed as a better gauge of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, fell 2,500 to 198,000 last ​week, the lowest level since early October 2022.

Stocks on Wall Street were trading lower. The dollar slipped against a basket of currencies.

Low initial claims make rate hikes more likely, so the stock market sees a not so bad unemployment report as bad news for stocks. 

………

The claims report showed the number of people receiving unemployment ‌benefits after ⁠an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, increased 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.716 million during the week ended September 26. The so-called continued claims had dropped to a 3-1/2-year low in the prior week.

Some economists argued that the still-low level of continued claims was masking a gradual labor market weakening as a group of unemployed people, including recent college graduates, were ineligible for benefits because of limited or no work history.

Some long-term unemployed people may have exhausted their eligibility, which is limited to 26 weeks in most states.

The median duration of unemployment was 11.5 weeks in September, near a 4-1/2-year high. The unemployment rate was at ​4.2% last month.

I'm not sure where this is going, but I'm a pessimist about all of this.