8:30a Initial Jobless Claims
New Claims - Level 211K actual vs 212K prior week
4-week Moving Average - Level 220.25K actual vs 225.00K prior week
Highlights
Initial unemployment claims remain low but not quite as low as April which will limit expectations for the May employment report. Claims in the May 18 week, which was the sample weekly for the May report, fell 1,000 and at 211,000 are near the low end of Econoday's consensus range. The 4-week average is also down, 4,750 lower at 220,250. Yet comparisons with the reporting week for the April employment report show a sizable 18,000 rise at the headline level and an 18,750 rise for the 4-week average.
Continuing claims, where data lag by a week, rose 12,000 with this 4-week average up 5,500 to 1.674 million. The unemployment rate for insured workers remains very low at 1.2 percent.
But however low claims data are, they're not as low as they were during the historic lows of April, and it's this comparison that points to an easing of strength, however moderate, in this month's labor market.
Dan 
