In A Sign Of Weakening Labor Market, 251,000 People Have Filed Unemployment Claims.
According to the Labor Department, the number of Americans who have filed their first unemployment claims increased last week as the labor market continues to show signs of softening, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.
With the 7,000 increase, the number now stands at 251,000, up from 249,000 the previous week.
In A Sign Of Weakening Labor Market, 251,000 People Have Filed Unemployment Claims
240,500 devices have been reported for the past four weeks, which is an increase of 4,500 devices from the previous period. According to economists, the weekly number was expected to be 240,000, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The increased level of unemployment claims is a sign that the economy is sluggish and that higher interest rates are starting to have an impact on the trajectory of the labor market.
It is also important to note that other sectors of the economy have already cooled off, with housing being the latest sector to experience the effects of higher borrowing costs and weaker demand as well. In June, both the number of new homes being built and the number of existing homes being sold fell.
Besides that, there was some good news about the economy on Thursday as the European Central Bank raised interest rates by 50 basis points, the first increase in 11 years. There is a high probability that the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates by 75 basis points, or even more, next week.
In general, the Fed wants to see the economy slow down, but it does not want to see the economy slipping into recession as a result. Even so, it seems increasingly unlikely that that will be the case in the near future.
In its recent update on the 2022 market outlook, Vanguard, one of the largest mutual fund companies in the world, has now forecasted an approximate 65% chance of a recession in the next 24 months.
As a result, Vanguard predicts that full-year U.S. growth will be around 1.5%, which is down from the forecast we made in the June monthly update of growth of around 2%.
Next week will be the release of the second quarter’s gross domestic product data for the United States. There was a decline of 1.6% in the GDP in the first quarter of the year.