Overview
- JPMorgan estimated initial state unemployment claims at 219,000 for the week ended Oct. 25, with Bloomberg-based calculations placing the figure near 218,000.
- Continuing claims rose to roughly 1.95–1.957 million for the week ended Oct. 18, a multi‑week high that points to slower rehiring.
- Federal-employee filings remained elevated, with about 8,865 initial claims for the week ended Oct. 25 and 20,594 continuing claims for the week ended Oct. 18.
- Analysts built the estimates from state-level submissions and pre-released BLS seasonal factors, substituting recent averages for missing data from Arizona, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- Economists said the low initial readings reinforce a resilient jobs backdrop and reduce pressure for another Fed cut in December, even as announced layoffs such as Amazon’s plan for up to 14,000 corporate cuts push monthly totals above 25,000.