The Initial Unemployment Claims report is a measure of the number of individuals in the U.S. who filed for jobless benefits for the first time during the past week.

The trend in this figure is an excellent indicator to gauge the health of the labor economy, and additionally serves as a misery index of sorts.

The Department of Labor reports:

In the week ending June 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 386,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 380,000. The 4-week moving average was 382,000, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 378,500.

Last week was revised up from 377,000 to 380,000.

Snarky bear @Not_Jim_Cramer gives the run down on why this statistic can be so misleading at times, and how the news is never as good as it appears, even when it’s bad.

This week’s figure is more of the same and, clearly, we should be expecting upward revisions on top of that.

 

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