Initial Claims & Continuing Claims

On the 24th, US data will be released concerning initial claims and continuing claims. The market expects 550,000 for initial claims, and continuing claims at 6.1 Million.

UPDATE: 

The week ending Sept. 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 530,000, a decrease of 21,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 551,000. 

4-week moving average was 553,500, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week's revised average of 564,500. 

Number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Sept. 12 was 6,138,000, a decrease of 123,000 from the previous week's revised level of 6,261,000.

The interesting news this past week is that the US may provide additional extension of benefits for 27 high unemployment rate states. This means that the government pretty much has acknowledge that unemployment will persist to be a on going problem. Some estimates have come in that unemployment may continue to be at elevated levels till 2011.

So initial claims dropped a bit while more then what the market expected, however continuing claims was more then what the market had expected. Short term wise employment is slowly improving, while longer term structural employment continues to be weak.