Initial Claims Up 15 Percent Since March 9th Bottom

As a backdrop for today’s big employment report, the Labor Department released its initial and continuing claims figures. Initial claims came in up 28K at 385K, an increase of almost 8%.  Initial claims are now up around 15% since bottom out on March 9th.  On the continuing claims side, the figures are marginally better, with today’s figures putting the continuing claims figure at 3.063 million, a decrease of about a quarter of a percent over the prior week. The market appears to be discounting the initial claims figures, focusing instead on today’s employment report, where the consensus among polled economists…