US initial jobless claims 209K vs 218K estimate

• Prior 217K revised to 210K.
• Initial jobless claims 209K vs 218K estimate.
• 4-week moving average of initial claims 208K vs 208.5K last week
• Continuing claims prior week 1.906M revised to 1.794M.
• Continuing claims current week 1.811M vs 1.900M estimate.
• 4-week moving average of continuing claims 1.799M vs 1.797M last week
• The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 2 were in New York (+14,176), California (+5,549),
  Texas (+2,102), Michigan (+979), and Florida (+783),
• The largest decreases were in Massachusetts (-3,894), Rhode
  Island (-1,955), Oregon (-1,063), Georgia (-882), and Tennessee (-335).

Big revisions especially to the continuing claims. This week, there have been benchmark revisions and a “new model” applied. Was that an influence? Regardless, the decline in the prior week for continuing claims was dramatic (from 1.906M to 1.794M last week). That is just not typical.

Note: This week’s release reflects the annual revision to the weekly unemployment claims seasonal adjustment factors.
The seasonal adjustment factors used for the UI Weekly Claims data from 2019 forward, along with the resulting
seasonally adjusted values for initial claims and continuing claims, have been revised. In addition, please note that this
year the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has implemented new models to seasonally adjust both the initial claims and
continued claims. For more information regarding the new methodology, please see the additional information at the end
of this news release.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.