The Good and the Bad

This is a few days old--I had thought I had heard some good jobs news the other day, but never double-checked. Of course, with the ongoing Weirdness, there is bad news with the good: Jobless claims fall to three-month lows; GDP revised lower

Applications for initial jobless aid plunged to three-month low last week, the government said Thursday in a report showing a better-than-expected improvement in the still-weak job market, but another report indicated the economy was more sluggish in the first three months of 2024 than previously thought and grew at a poky annual rate of just 1.4%.

The Labor Department said 404,000 idled workers filed for unemployment insurance payments at state offices in the June 21 week, down 22,000 from a revised 426,000 a week earlier and the lowest since March 22.

Wall Street economists had forecast first-time claims would fall to 415,000 compared with the department's original estimate of 421,000 in the June 14 week.