US jobless claims soar again during latest week

Initial weekly US jobless claims continued to surge higher during the latest week, underscoring the dire state of the jobs market.

According to the Department of Labor, unemployment claims soared by 4.427m over the week ending on 18 April (Barclays: 4.5m).

Although the increased was 810,000 less than during the prior week, the four-week moving average increased by 280,000 to hit 5.786m.

Secondary unemployment claims meanwhile, those which are not being filed for the first time and referencing the week ending on 11 April, rose by 4.064m to hit 15.976m.

Commenting on the latest claims numbers, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics said: "Some analysts feared an increase, on the grounds that claims would rebound after the holiday week, but any post-Good Friday rebound was swamped by the trend, as we expected. We anticipate a further decline in claims next week, but the rate of fall of Google searches for “file for unemployment” has slowed, suggesting it will take several more weeks before claims drop below one million. Note that in the single worst week after the crash of 2008, claims rose 665K."