Soft Landing? Initial Jobless Claims Plunges Near 54-Year-Low

The number of Americans filing for jobless claims for the first time plunged to just 187k Americans in the week-ending Jan 13th. That is the lowest since Sept 2022…

Source: Bloomberg

…and second lowest level since May 1969…

Source: Bloomberg

New York seems responsible for the huge decline claims last week (while California saw an increase in claims)…

Source: Bloomberg

Continuing claims also continued to trend lower, hovering just above 1.8mm Americans…

Source: Bloomberg

And just like that Goldilocks dream of a soft-landing was destroyed. How does The Fed justify rate-cuts when the labor market is the ‘best’ in over 50 years?