In this morning’s data, Initial Jobless Claims were 212,000 for the week ending April 13th, slightly less than expected and the same as the revised figure from the previous week. In addition, Continuing Claims were 1,812,000 for the week ending April 6th, also slightly less than expected and 2,000 more than the previous week’s revised figure.
Overall, initial and continuing claims were slightly less than expected, with only slight changes to the previous week in continuing claims. As a real-time look into the labor market, these measures show the labor market is still tight, and they have signified stability for some time. Given this stability, the Federal Reserve has not needed to focus on employment, but instead on keeping rates higher for longer to ensure inflation moves lower and closer to their 2% annual target for core rates.
Within the labor market, while the dynamics of immigration may be helping companies to find workers, some layoffs are also occurring, such as Tesla deciding to let people go earlier this week. How this balance unfolds in the coming months will be a key component for the focus of the Federal Reserve and thus the direction of the economy and markets.
In all, the yield on the 10-year US treasury ticks higher this morning, and equity futures are also higher as we head into the market open.
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