{"id":65751,"date":"2018-01-25T18:43:51","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T00:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=65751"},"modified":"2018-01-25T18:43:51","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T00:43:51","slug":"u-s-jobless-claims-point-to-a-healthy-labor-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/u-s-jobless-claims-point-to-a-healthy-labor-market\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Jobless Claims Point to a Healthy Labor Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Minghe Hu <\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance benefits, seasonally adjusted, increased to 233,000 in the week ended Jan. 20 from the revised 216,000 in the prior week, according to the Labor Department.<\/p>\n

The four-week moving average of initial claims, a better indication of the recent trend, fell 3,500 to 240,000 from the previous week\u2019s revised average.<\/p>\n

\"4-Week
4-Week Moving Average of Initial Claims, Source :Labor Department via the Federal Reserve Bank of St.Louis, Jan. 25, 2018. (Minghe Hu\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the four-week moving average for claims, or the recent underlying trend, claims have been generally closer to the 240,000 level, or just a bit higher,\u201d Douglas Porter, the chief economist at BMO Financial Group, wrote in an interview via e-mail. \u201cIn essence, most Americans who want a job can now find a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The claims processing in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands haven\u2019t returned normal due to Hurricanes Irma and Maria last year.<\/p>\n

The unemployment rate was at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also think that this tightness will begin to more noticeably put upward pressure on wage increases in the coming year,” Porter wrote.\u00a0“And, yes, we do look for the unemployment rate to fall further to around 3.8 percent by the end of 2018.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n
\"Number
Number of Unemployed Persons Per Job Opening, Jan. 25, 2018. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (Minghe Hu\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The number of unemployed persons per job opening remained at an historic low of 1.1 since November, compared to the ratio’s peak of 6.6 in July 2009 during the recession, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key issue there is that there simply are fewer and fewer available workers at this advanced stage of the business cycle,\u201d wrote Porter.<\/p>\n

Continuing claims, the number of people receiving benefits after the first-week claims, decreased 28,000 to 1.94 million in the week ended Jan. 13. The four-week moving average of continuing claims dropped 3,500 to 1.92 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe labor market is not full,\u201d said Ian Dew-Becker, an associate professor of finance in Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. \u201cCompanies can find qualified workers if they are willing to raise wages.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Minghe Hu Medill Reports The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance benefits, seasonally adjusted, increased to 233,000 in the week ended Jan. 20 from the revised 216,000 in the prior week, according to the Labor Department. The four-week moving average of initial claims, a better indication of the recent trend, fell 3,500 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":454,"featured_media":65753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,3912,3987],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-fall-2017","category-winter-2018"],"yoast_head":"\nU.S. Jobless Claims Point to a Healthy Labor Market - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/u-s-jobless-claims-point-to-a-healthy-labor-market\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"U.S. Jobless Claims Point to a Healthy Labor Market - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Minghe Hu Medill Reports The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance benefits, seasonally adjusted, increased to 233,000 in the week ended Jan. 20 from the revised 216,000 in the prior week, according to the Labor Department. 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