Initial Claims Below-300K Mark For Six Consecutive Weeks [CHARTS]

Perhaps the king of timely government data, Initial Claims came in at 283K today, an increase of 17K over the incredibly low 266K of the prior week. Overall, the 283K figure makes it 6 consecutive weeks of Initial Claims below the psychologically important 300K level. How long can claims stay where they are? Here’s a look. The next two graphics address the question from an historical perspective. The first is a cycle graph of the Initial Claims figures. Each line represents a “cycle,” which is an instance when Initial Claims dropped below 300K. The label on each graph is the…