US: Labour market is weakening – TDS

Analysts at TD Securities note that the US jobless claims were 234K for the week of Dec 14, down from 252K but still up from what has been a sub-220K trend.

Key Quotes

“Consensus was looking for a lower 225K print. The 4-wk avg is now 226K, up from 224K last week and 218K two weeks ago. On the surface, the numbers suggests the labor market is weakening, but we suspect the rise mainly reflects seasonal adjustment issues (that is why we had forecast a still-high 240K this week). That said, the data remain important to watch in the weeks ahead.”