Yahoo Finance Jobless Claims Gain 7,000 Week-over-Week—Still below 300,000
Latest Department Store Numbers a Mixed Bag
Initial jobless claims
The weekly jobless claims report for the week ending May 23 was released by the Employment and Training Administration of the United States Department of Labor on May 28. The seasonally adjusted initial claims for the third week of May increased by 7,000 to 282,000 from the previous week’s revised figure. Economists had expected initial claims to come in at 270,000. Jobless claims for the previous week were revised upward by 1,000, from 274,000 to 275,000.
Moving average
The jobless claims report provides data on the number of individuals who have filed for unemployment insurance for the first time. The report also provides a four-week moving average of jobless claims, which is a less volatile, better measure of labor trends.
The four-week moving average for the week ending May 23 increased by 5,000 from the previous week to 271,500. The previous week’s moving average was revised up by 250, from 266,250 to 266,500 claims.
Overall trend and impact on department stores
The week ending May 23 was the twelfth straight week in which initial jobless claims have been under 300,000. This shows improvement in the job market, even though the US economy struggled in the first quarter of 2015.
An improvement in the job market may boost consumer confidence and spending. However, as discussed in Part 3 of this series, consumer sentiment fell in May.
Consumers’ attitudes about the job market and the overall economy affect the sales at department stores including Nordstrom (JWN), Kohl’s (KSS), and JCPenney (JCP).
Nordstrom and Kohl’s together account for over 0.1% of the portfolio holdings of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and ~1.8% of the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT).
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