US: Initial jobless claims to remain somewhat elevated - Nomura

Analysts at Nomura expect US initial jobless claims to remain somewhat elevated after they decreased 23k to 259k for the week ending 16 September, but remain above the pre-Harvey level of roughly 240k.

Key Quotes

“In the advance estimate, initial jobless claims in Florida did not increase as strongly as expected, indicating that there could be some delay in filing due to electricity outages from Hurricane Irma. For the week ending 9 September, continuing jobless claims increased 44k to 1980k, likely reflecting the influx of initial claims from Hurricane Harvey.”

“Overall, we expect initial jobless claims to remain somewhat elevated over the near term due to the negative impact from the active hurricane season. While labor market readings will be distorted over the next few months due to inclement weather, we still expect the underlying pace of job growth to remain steady.”