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US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims rise slightly to 203K vs. 195K expected

  • There were 203K initial claims in the week ending 7 May, a tad above the 195K expected. 
  • Continued claims saw a much larger than forecast drop. 
  • FX markets did not react to the latest weekly jobless claims report. 

There were 203,000 Initial Jobless Claims in the week ending on 7 May, a little above the expected drop to 195,000 from 202,000 one week ago, data released by the US Department of Labour on Thursday showed. As a result, the four-week average number of Initial Jobless Claims rose to 192,750 from 188,500 a week earlier. 

Continued Claims fell to 1.343 million in the week ending on 30 April, larger than the expected decline from 1.387 million to 1.38 million. The Insured Unemployment rate nonetheless remained unchanged at 1.1% for the week ending on 30 April. 

Market Reaction

FX markets did not react to the latest weekly jobless claims report. 

Author

Joel Frank

Joel Frank

Independent Analyst

Joel Frank is an economics graduate from the University of Birmingham and has worked as a full-time financial market analyst since 2018, specialising in the coverage of how developments in the global economy impact financial asset

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