US: Labor market, although improving, is far from normal – Wells Fargo

The weekly jobless claims report came in with numbers better-than-expected. Analysts at Wells Fargo, point out the total number of individuals who continue to file claims remains elevated and that the labor market is far from “fixed.”

Key Quotes: 

“709K individuals filed an initial claim for unemployment insurance last week. Not only was the total lower than consensus, but the outturn represented an improvement from the 757K filings during the preceding week.”

“The number of individuals who continued to file PUA claims (e.g. part-time and gig workers) rose by 101K during the week ending October 24. And the total amount of emergency claims (PEUC) also rose by 160K.”

“In total, there were 21.157 million individuals who filed some sort of unemployment claim during the week of October 24. In short, the labor market, although improving, is far from “normal.”