Weekly unemployment claims remain around the pandemic era; GDP revised further to 6.6%

Initial unemployment insurance claims varied little over the past week and hovered around pandemic-era lows as the labor market shows more signs of healing.

The first submissions were 353,000 for the week ended Aug. 14, a slight increase from the previous week’s 349,000, the Department of Labor said Thursday. This was slightly worse than the Dow Jones 350,000 estimate.

An independent economic reading showed gross domestic product rose at an annualized rate of 6.6% in the second quarter, according to the Department of Commerce’s second estimate Thursday. This was ahead of the initial estimate of 6.5%, but below the Dow Jones forecast of 6.7%.

Taken together, reports show an economy growing through the pandemic, despite concerns about rising cases of the Covid-19 delta variant.

Markets showed little reaction to the news, with futures on stocks indicating a mostly flat opening on Wall Street.

At work, weekly claims remain around the best levels they have seen since March 2020, although they are well above pre-pandemic levels and show some signs of flattening.

Continued claims also showed little change, down from the previous week’s 3,000 to 2.86 million, according to data a week behind the main number. However, the four-week moving average fell 108,500 to over 2.9 million.

Maryland (3,618) and Illinois (3,515) showed the highest weekly gains, while Michigan recorded a decline of 7,056, according to unadjusted data.

According to data from August 7, the total number of beneficiaries of all government programs amounted to just over 12 million, a year ago, the total was about 27.5 million.

In the GDP review, the second reading of the pace of all goods and services produced was higher than the initial estimate due to an upward revision of non-residential fixed investment. Some cuts to previous estimates of private inventory and residential fixed investment, along with a lower reading of state and local government spending, partially offset the higher number.

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