The Continuing Jobless Claims is released by the US Department of Labor and measures the number of individuals who are currently unemployed and are currently receiving unemployment benefits, in the form of unemployment insurance. It is released frequently on a weekly basis, and is shows the strength of labor market. A strong labor market is evident when the readings of Continuing Jobless Claims are lower than expected or are decreasing. Each week when there is the release of Continuing Jobless Claims, lower than expected of falling readings are in general positive for the US Dollar, and a trend of 4 weeks of economic data can be used as an estimate of whether the monthly unemployment rate should be increasing or decreasing. It can vary in its readings due to seasonality in specific months.
The United States Continuing Jobless Claims
The latest release of US Continuing Jobless Claims was on 6th July 2017, with an actual reading of 1.956 million, higher than the forecast of 1.939 million and the previous reading of 1.945 million. The highest level for US Continuing Jobless Claims was a reading of 6.635 million during May of 2009, while the lowest level was a reading of 988.000 during the month of May in 1969. The United Stated Continuing Jobless Claims show an increasing trend for the past 5 consecutive readings, a trend which is contradicting with the latest strong number of US non-farm payrolls, but in line with the latest rise in monthly unemployment rate from 4.30% to 4.40%.
