According to the weekly statistics that were released by the United States Department of Labor (DOL) on Thursday, there were around 228,000 initial unemployment claims filed in the week that ended on April 1. This report came in lower than the market expectation of 200,000 and followed the previous week’s estimate of 246,000 (which was corrected from 191,000).
U.S. Jobless Claims Fall
Additional information provided by the publication disclosed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.3% and the 4-week moving average was 237,750 — representing a decrease of 4,250 from the previous week’s revised average. Both of these figures represent a decrease from the previous week’s revised total.
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Following the pandemic, the majority of recent job growth has been driven by the expansion of smaller enterprises such as restaurants and bars. According to further information provided by the DOL, “the advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 25 was 1,823,000” which is an increase of 6,000 over the prior week’s adjusted level.
Market Reaction
In the wake of the new macroeconomic data, U.S. stocks showed signs of weakness on Thursday as the stronger-than-expected jobless claims added to fears of an upcoming recession. At the time of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 136 points or 0.4%, while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite fell by 0.5% and 0.7% respectively.
On the other hand, the cryptocurrency market also witnessed a marginal decline. As things stand, the price of Bitcoin is currently exchanging hands at $27,922 which represents a drop of 0.84% in the past 24 hours as opposed to a loss of 1.76% recorded over the past seven days.
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