- Initial jobless claims edged down to a still elevated 4.4 million for the week ended on April 18th , broadly in line with market expectations of 4.3 million. This was a decrease of 810K from the previous week. Continuing claims recorded 15.98 million for the week ended on April 11th, just below market expectations (+16.48 million).
- California recorded the largest number of claims at 533,568. Followed by Florida (+505,137), Texas (+280,406), Georgia (+243,667), and New York (+204,716).
Key Implications
- Another extraordinarily high number of Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, taking the total number of jobless claims to over 26 million since the middle of March. The only piece of good news is that the number of people filing claims has been coming down since the beginning of April. This is due in part to employers retaining their employees and workers finding other jobs.
- The immense popularity of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) indicates that employers are indeed holding onto employees. The $350 billion program was completely exhausted late last week, prompting calls by small businesses to quickly replenish the fund. Congress responded by agreeing this week to add another $310 billion to the program.
- Despite financial assistance programs like PPP, extensive damage has been done to the labor market. The unemployment rate is on track to reach around 20% this month. However, with self-distancing measures helping bring down the infection rate, some states are planning to open the economy bit-by-bit in May. This should help resuscitate the badly battered labor market.
