Jobless Claims

In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses jobless claims.

• Although the estimates are preliminary, initial claims for unemployment insurance for the week ending September 15 fell by 3,000 claims to 382,000 from the previous week’s revised (upward) estimate. Initial claims data are volatile and subject to revisions the following week, and in 2012, the revisions have often been upward. The situation is certainly better than the same period last year when 417,000 initial claims filed in the same period, although higher than 300,000 weekly claims during normal times.
• This brings to 3.272 million the number of unemployed with continuing claims. This is  lower than the 3.304 million registered the week ending September 1, and the difference of 32,000 claimants represents people who were either able to find a job or who are no longer eligible to receive unemployment benefits.  The number of continuing claims have fallen from the peak of 6.5 million claims in the middle of 2009 , although still above  the levels prior to the Great Recession.
• To sum up, this week’s data shows a labor market that has leveled off in terms of job losses and that continues to generate net employment gains, albeit modest. Still, any employment gains bolster the continuing recovery in the housing market. NAR forecasts 1.5 million jobs in 2012 and about 10 percent growth in existing homes sales to 4.6 million.