Economics
Jobless Claims at Five-Decade Low Exclude U.S. Shutdown Workers
- Federal filings, which are rising, aren’t part of main count
- Overall decline shows ‘economy is still strong,’ says analyst
Demonstrators hold signs during a protest against the government shutdown in Boston on Jan. 11, 2019.
Photographer: Scott Eisen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
If you’re trying to figure out why filings for unemployment benefits are so low amid a government shutdown, don’t look to the headline data.
That’s because federal workers aren’t factored into the overall number, which tracks filings at the state level. While jobless claims dropped to 199,000 last week, the fewest since 1969 and below all estimates in Bloomberg’s survey, it doesn’t include claims from federal workers, which more than doubled in the week prior to the headline data.