Initial weekly US jobless claims surge again

The US jobs market continued to deteriorate at a frenetic pace over the latest reference week, although a smidgen less quickly than forecast.

According to the Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms, initial jobless claims surged by a further 3.169m during the week ending on 2 May.

Consensus was for a leap of 3.25m.

The four-week moving average meanwhile dropped by 861,500 to roughly 4.174m.

Secondary unemployment claims, which are those not being filed for the first time and referencing the week ending on 25 April, surged alongside, by 4.636m to 22.647m.

"If the current rate of decline continues, claims will dip below 1M in the second or—more likely—third week of June, though they would remain well above the 665K worst single week after the crash of 2008," said Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

"The recent data are consistent, we think, with a further 13M drop in May payrolls after the 22M plunge we expect to be reported tomorrow for April, but we’re very hopeful that June will see the beginnings of a rebound as states begin to reopen. Note that the claims numbers tell us nothing about the pace of gross hiring, so we’ll be largely in the dark about the speed with which firms start to bring back employees."