Initial Jobless Claims up. Productivity down.
Initial Jobless Claims (week ended 10/31/2015)
– New Claims seasonally adjusted 276,000. Previous was 260,000
– New Claims not seasonally adjusted totaled 258,663 an increase of 13,303 previous
– 4-week Moving Average 262,750. Previous was 259,250
Challenger Job-Cut Report (October 2015)
– Announced Layoffs 50,504. Previous was 58,877.
About a quarter of these announced layoff are in the oil industry.
Productivity and Costs (3rdQ2015)
– Nonfarm productivity quarter/quarter seasonally adjusted, annualized +1.6%. Previous was +3.5%
– Unit labor costs quarter/quarter seasonally adjusted, annualized +1.4%. Previous was -1.8%.
Productivity is GDP/hour worked. Productivity growth continues to be disappointingly low.
Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index (week ended 11/1/2015)
– Index 41.1. Previous was 42.8.
This is another survey index which tries to estimate what consumer spending will be in the next 3 months.