The number of people standing in line to file first-time jobless benefits rose slightly last week, but the underlying trend remained slanted toward improvement. During the week ended November 13th initial claims for unemployment benefits climbed 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 439,000, according to the data wonks at the Labor Department. Until/unless the seasonally adjusted claims number can manage to fall to 400,000 or less on a sustained basis - this data will tend to support steady to perhaps fractionally lower mortgage interest rates.
This week's initial jobless claims data covered the survey week for the more important November nonfarm payroll report scheduled for release on Friday, December 3rd -- and did nothing to change mortgage investors' expectation that the economy probably created 100,000 more jobs than it lost this month. The economy needs to create at least 150,000 jobs every month -- just to absorb new entrants -- and will need to do considerably better than that to put a meaningful dent in the nation's almost 10% unemployment rate.
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