Jennifer Lee, a Senior Economist at the Bank of Montreal, recaps the Initial Jobless Claims released by the US.
Key quotes
“The number of Americans filing for UI for the first time slipped for the first time in about a month but considering that total initial filings were still a towering 6.606 mln in the week of April 4, the 261,000 decline was barely noticeable in the grand scheme of things.”
“Those who remain on UI (continuing claims) surged 4.396 mln to 7.455 mln in the last week of March, clearly a record. And this stretch of UI claims measured in the millions isn’t going to end in the next few weeks.
“Interesting timing that the Federal Reserve unexpectedly announced a huge $2.3 trln of support to backstop Main Street this morning.”
“Look for that double-digit jobless rate in the April payroll report next month.”