I don’t recall having seen anybody else commenting on this but, if the “unexpected” bump in jobless claims:
U.S. unemployment claims unexpectedly surged in the latest week, generating fresh anxiety about a labor market that has yet to catch up with growth in the overall economy.
On Thursday, the Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment insurance shot up by 36,000 to 482,000 in the week ended Jan. 16, rather than an expected decline of 4,000. The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out volatility, increased by 7,000 to 448,250
is an artifact:
A Labor Department economist tied some of the rise in claims to a processing backlog due to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. That may have resulted from budget strains on state and local governments, said Nomura Securities economist Zach Pandl.
doesn’t that necessarily mean that the slowing of unemployment claims in previous week was an artifact, too?
